‘MCP district chairpersons sued wrong parties’

The High Court in Lilongwe yesterday dismissed a case in which suspended Malawi Congress Party (MCP) district chairpersons were calling for an early convention.

In his ruling, High Court judge Justice Charles Mkandawire said there was no evidence that district committees met and resolved to petition for the  emergency convention.

He said it was not reasonable for the court to make an order for the emergency convention without minutes of the said meetings.

Mkandawire also observed that the applicants’ first meeting was held in Salima. He told the court that he believed they used their personal money and yet they repeatedly told the court that they had no minutes to furnish the court with due to financial constraints.

The judge wondered why the applicants attended court proceedings by travelling from all corners of the country and still wanted the court to believe that they had no money to buy papers to write minutes and engage a lawyer to represent them in the court.

However, Mkandawire told the court that applicants flouted the same MCP constitution they said the party flouted by failing to produce minutes of the purported district committee meetings.

“He who comes to seek justice must come with clean hands,” he said.

Reacting to the ruling, MCP deputy secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka said the party was excited that dust had finally settled after months of battling for justice.

He said: “Essentially, we are very excited as a party because this case derailed our activities, instead of focusing on strategising for the 2019 polls we were busy defending ourselves in court.” (Additional reporting—Lucky Mkandawire, News Analyst)