3 candidates petition court

At least three parliamentary candidates petitioned the High Court in Blantyre last week to challenge official results the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) announced on Monday.
All candidates in the tripartite elections had seven days to challenge the results from the day they were announced.
Joseph Malingamoyo, who is challenging Everton Chimulirenji’s victory in Ntcheu North East, agued in an affidavit that Chimulirenji did not qualify to be a parliamentarian because he cannot take an active part in parliamentary proceedings due to his inability to speak and read English well enough.

 
Malingamoyo claimed Chimulirenji presented his brother’s certificate to deceive MEC, adding he also used the same certificate when he was elected as an MP in 2009.
The petitioner, who is asking the court to declare that Chimulirenji was not duly elected as an MP, said the declared winner failed to make any contribution in the National Assembly throughout his tenure because of language deficiencies.
Another petitioner, Yunus Mussa, who was defeated by Nangozo Patricia Kainga in Zomba Central, has also asked the High Court in Blantyre to order a recount of the votes for the whole constituency or at least in some discrepant polling stations.
Mussa, who represented Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is citing several counting irregularities committed by MEC staff as the basis of his case.
Another parliamentary candidate, Patrick Kamkwatira, also of DPP, is demanding physical audit of the ballot papers and a declaration that all ballot papers from all the polling stations in Neno South Constituency be scrutinised within five days from the date of the declaration by the court.

Kamkwatira, who lost to Mary Maulidi Khembo, argued that results compiled by his monitors from all polling stations indicated that he should have been duly elected as MP in the constituency.
In the presidential race, major political parties have said they will not challenge the presidential result despite their belief that they had a strong case to do so.
The presidential candidates had seven days to file their petitions in the High Court to challenge MEC’s decision that declared DPP candidate Peter Mutharika winner. However, as of Friday, no candidate petitioned.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) secretary general Gustav Kaliwo said in an interview his party believed it had a strong case, but , it could have been an exercise in futility to pursue it after Mutharika was declared winner on a Friday night and sworn in the following morning.

 
Kaliwo said: “We did everything we could before results were announced, but we were frustrated and we have given up. We have been let down by the system, the forces conspired to frustrate us”.
Former governing People’s Party (PP) acting secretary-general Paul Maulidi said in an interview they had no case if MCP, which came second in the presidential race, had given up.
Maulidi said: “According to the results, the best party to pursue the case was MCP, we came third and our president has already congratulated Professor Mutharika. We are more or less saying let bygones be bygones.”
Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) secretary general Kandi Padambo, whose party came fourth, said they would leave things as they are to respect the rule of law.

 
Associate professor of law at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College Garton Kamchezera said If MCP really had evidence, it should have pursued the truth, justice and righteousness for the sake of the nation, even if that could not have changed the results.
Kamchezera said: “The truth is good enough to be a cause without personal or political party gain. Otherwise we will say they were just whining or they were complaining just to serve their interests and not those of the nation, which include truth and justice”. n