Councilor Christopher Jana has been elected as a new Mayor for Zomba city succeeding Councillor Melia Douglas whose term expired on Thursday.

Councillor Jana of Mpira Ward won the election with five votes while his two contestants, Melia Douglas and Eda Mkula got three votes each.

Eleven members from the council’s executive, who are Councillors and Members of Parliament, casted their votes.

The new mayor who announced his defection from People’s Party (PP) to join Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), twenty minutes before the vote casting, said his mission is to proceed from where his predecessor has left.

“I don’t have any new assignments but just to proceed with the projects that are already in the pipe-line to make sure that they are successfully completed,” he said.

He cited Sadzi bridge project which the council has failed to construct for a long time despite government incurring K2 million for its maintenance, as one of his priority project to tackle.

Commenting on his sudden defection PP to join the DPP, councillor Jana was quick to refute allegations that he has been bought by the ruling party but was just exercising his constitutional right to freedom of association.

“People can speak whatever they want but I can’t be bought by anyone and I can challenge that even the DPP members were not aware that I was contesting for the post of mayor,” Jana said.

Douglas whose period of office expire last Thursday and was elected in September 2015 following the death of Joana Mtaja in March the same year after serving for a year.

Before the voting session, the council approved its budget for the year 2018 to 2019 which is close to 2.8 billion kwacha.