The High Court of Malawi has nullified a Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declaration of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Martha Munthali-Ngwira as winner of the parliamentary race in Mzimba Hora Constituency.
In a judgement delivered in Mzuzu on Monday, Judge Thomson Ligowe said Munthali-Ngwira was not duly elected because the voting process on September 16 was fraught with irregularities, including dishing out cash to voters.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate Henri Mumba filed the petition.
The judge said it was proven that known DPP cadres Robert Ng’ona and Albert Nkunika distributed cash, ranging from K2 000 to K10 000 to influence voters to to pick Ngwira at Chiseng’ezi and Chaboli polling stations.
Said Ligowe: “And I have found that a representative of DPP was given the role of a polling station officer for some time at Chasimba polling station. These irregularities affected the quality of the election in the constituency.
“The guide from the Supreme Court of Appeal is that it will be hard to uphold an election where the process has largely been compromised. The resulting vote numbers might have come about as a result of the irregularities.”
The judge further said while MEC’s submissions indicated that it is incumbent on the petitioner to prove that the process was largely compromised, he held the view that the onus is on the electoral body to disprove initial evidence of allegations in a petition.
“In the absence of the rebuttal, by way of evidence or cross-examination, I am inclined to find that these irregularities largely compromised the integrity of the parliamentary election… For this reason, I declare that the member of Parliament for Mzimba Hora Constituency was not duly elected,” said Ligowe.
Mumba, through his lawyer Justin Dzonzi, among others also contended that at Chasimba polling station, MCP representatives observed that a DPP official was unlawfully given the role of polling station officer and instructed voters to vote for Ngwira.
Yesterday, Ngwira’s lawyer Christon Ghambi said they will appeal the High Court decision.
On the other hand, Parliament spokesperson Ian Mwenye said in a telephone interview yesterday that they were yet to be served with the ruling, signalling that Ngwira was still performing the legislative functions where she is the government deputy chief whip in Parliament. She is also Deputy Minister of Gender.
In a separate interview, Dzonzi said he only received the hard copy of the judgement yesterday and expects to serve Parliament with the document today.
Two weeks ago, the High Court in Lilongwe also set aside MEC’s decision that nullified the election for Lilongwe Mtandire-Mtsiriza Constituency where Minister of State Alfred Gangata was declared winner.
In Blantyre, the court dismissed a petition by Minister of Education Bright Msaka and MacDonald Makanjira challenging election results in Machinga Likwenu where United Democratic Front candidate Tulinje Muluzi was declared winner.
Meanwhile, the High Court in Blantyre yesterday dismissed a petition by DPP candidate for Chikwawa North Constituency, Lynda Khembo, challenging MEC’s declaration of Geoffrey Onsewa (independent) as winner of the September 16 parliamentary election.
Khembo had argued that the election was marred by irregularities, including unsigned or uniformly signed forms.
But in his ruling, Judge Texious Masoamphambe said although the presiding officer acknowledged signing the tally sheets on behalf of a monitor, Khembo failed to demonstrate that this irregularityaffected the overall outcome of the election.
MEC was facing 83 petitions in the High Court that losing parliamentary aspirants filed in 83 of the declared 224 constituencies.
Additional reporting: JONATHAN PASUNGWI, Staff Reporter
