Gambling MCP pinned, bolts

 Malawi Congress Party’s (MCP) convention drama forced the country’s courts to work overtime yesterday even as it caused more uncertainty around the indaba.

Within an hour of the Supreme Court last night suspending the MCP convention starting today after the party tried to stay enforcement of a High Court judgement that nullified its new national executive committee’s (NEC) aspirants’ eligibility criteria, The Nation got word that the party had withdrawn the appeal.

MCP laywer Wapona Kita took the matter to the Supreme Court seeking stay of execution of Judge Howard Pemba’s ruling

 party member Eddie Banda’s application for the High Court to overturn the NEC’s resolution. delivered on Tuesday following

The new eligibility criteria stipulated that members without two years’ leadership experience within the party were not eligible for NEC positions during the elective convention.

But after getting more than his client bargained for—Justice of the Supreme Court Dingiswayo Madise granted MCP the stay and resolved to hear the case, but then ruled that the indaba would also have to wait for the legal matters to be resolved first—Kita made a sharp U-turn.

 Said Kita in a written response: “I have had a briefing with the client [MCP] and explained to them the consequences and implications of the Supreme Court of appeal order. We went to court asking for a stay order which the court granted us, but we got more than we asked for, in that we did not ask the court to postpone the convention.

“My client has instructed me to withdraw the appeal in the circumstances, which means the order from the Supreme Court will have no legal [basis] to stand on. This means that the convention will proceed tomorrow as client has weighed in on the cost of postponing the elective convention.”

 In his ruling issued last night under Civil Cause No. 86 of 2024, Madise explained that “to achieve fairness to all parties concerned,

 the scheduled MCP convention hereby stands suspended until after the hearing and determination of the interpartes application.”

That verdict was expected to push the convention further ahead as the highest court in the land said it will hear the case seven days after receiving dockets of arguments from both MCP and Banda’s legal teams.

“The respondent must file his response with arguments seven days after being served with the interpartes application. Hearing of the interpartes application will take place seven days after receiving the filed response,” said Justice Madise.

MCP lawyer Kita, in his Notice of Appeal, revealed that earlier in the day he had applied for the stay

of execution through Judge Pemba who rebuffed him.

Justifying the application, Kita raised five arguments, among them that the Judge erred in law in ruling that Banda is an MCP member and that NEC did not have the power to set eligibility criteria for candidates.

Meanwhile, Banda’s lawyer Khumbo Soko said he would not comment before seeing the documents.

In an interview last night on what the party’s position is following the last minute legal decisions, chairperson of the MCP convention organising committee Kezzie Msukwa said the party will respect the High Court decision.

“We are a law abiding party and the rule of law is our number one priority and we have to follow the court order. That has been the position from day one actually.”

Asked specifically if the 20 who were disqualified would be allowed to participate in the elections, Msukwa said, “Everyone will be allowed to contest.”

But a senior NEC official said in a separate interview while the party will adhere to the court order, he indicated that not all those who were dropped from the list will contest.

He said: “Candidates were disqualified for different reasons, including indiscipline and failure to follow procedure. So, only those that were disqualified on the contested provision of two years’ experience will be allowed to contest in line with the court order.”

Meanwhile, the indaba preparations were already at an advanced stage, including registration of delegates at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC).

As late as 6pm there were several MCP officials at the party headquarters who seemed busier than most days.

Earlier different sections of the party planned to hold press briefings to address the public on the convention, but all these were called off at the eleventh hour