MP, candidate fight in court over May 20 results

Lilongwe Mpenu Nkhoma member of Parliament (MP) Collins Kajawa (independent), who the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared as winner of the parliamentary race in the May 20 Tripartite Elections, is engaged in a court battle over his legitimacy.

Gefred Brown Mchali, who is challenging the May 20 2014 parliamentary results through his lawyer Michael Goba Chipeta, told the High Court in Blantyre he was robbed of victory owing to MEC’s mistake when adding up figures.

MEC, through lawyer Chikumbutso Mkwamba, admitted making an error when adding up figures from the polling stations in the constituency. During proceedings in court, MEC offered a rerun to correct the error.

But Chipeta said the mistake was clear as per MEC’s own admission, and the best the electoral body should have done upon realising the error was to declare his client the winner.

The court learnt that at one polling station where Mchali, who also contested as an independent candidate, polled 1 033 votes, MEC only entered 33, denying him 1 000 votes,  thereby contributing to his loss.

Chipeta told the court that if his client had the 1 033 votes correctly entered, he was a straight winner in the parliamentary race.

MEC’s lawyer agreed with Chipeta in his submissions that his client should have been declared a winner.

But Kajawa’s lawyer, Rodgers Mpombedza, maintained that MEC made no mistake and his client won the polls. He pleaded with the court to retain his client as a winner.

High Court Judge Ivy Kamanga is set to deliver her ruling on March 6 2015.