Despite the recent torching of disputed ballot boxes at a Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) warehouse in Lilongwe, the High Court says it will proceed to declare the winner in the disputed Lilongwe City South East Constituency.
The court said it will make its decision after hearing petitions from both sides to the dispute in two weeks’ time.
Private practice lawyer Emmanuel Tchapo, who is representing the applicant Ulemu Msungama, said in an interview yesterday that the initial application of vacating a stay order by his client and setting aside the consent for a recount by the respondent, Bently Namasasu, are no longer relevant given the botched up ballot boxes at MEC.
Said Tchapo: “What we did was to seek further directions from the court given that there is nothing to recount. Both parties have agreed to abandon our earlier petitions.
“The court’s new direction is that within three days, the petitioner should file any supplementary affidavit in support of his position, interested party must be allowed to respond, after another three days the petitioner may reply to the responses and the matter will be scheduled for hearing thereafter. Basically, the matter will be heard within 14 days.”
Namasasu’s lawyer said they will wait to hear from the courts.
In a related development, MEC chief elections officer Willie Kalonga said investigations are still underway to establish the cause of the fire.
MEC declared Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Namasasu as winner of the parliamentary poll with 10 956 votes against 10 854 for Msungama who contested on a Malawi Congress Party (MCP) ticket.
