Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has failed to agree on the actual list of delegates to vote in the court-sanctioned Mzimba Central Constituency primary election, leading to postponement of the fresh vote yesterday.
Through the party’s director of legal affairs Jivason Kadzipatike, MCP said while it is trying to resolve the matter, it may end up writing the High Court of Malawi to intervene on the way forward.
It has emerged that the verification of the electoral college on Saturday, as per the July 16 court ruling, happened in just eight of 50 areas due to disagreements that led to disruptions of the process.
The verification exercise was scheduled for Euthini, Mbalachanda and Chidede.
However, Khumbo Soko, lawyer representing Minister of Trade and Industry Vitumbiko Mumba who is one of the contestants, said the verification process at one of the centres where the party’s deputy director of elections Matthias Mgemezulu presided over was abandoned.
He said he wrote Kadzipatike the same Saturday that Mgemezulu decided to exclude constituency committee members from the process and to utilise the college that was already discredited by the court.
Reads Soko’s communication: “We wanted to seek your confirmation that: That the verification exercise will be finalised tomorrow 27 July 2025 and that thereafter the party will firm up the dates of the primary poll.
“That Mr. Mgemezulu’s role in the process will be curtailed for the reasons articulated above. That the Party will use the Electoral College that the Constituency Committee came up with and which College was endorsed by the District and Regional Officials of the Party,” he wrote
Responding to Soko, Kadzipatike said a mob which included a Mr. Chondo violently disrupted the exercise at Kapiri and roughed up Mgemezulu. He added that the said mob also went to cause havoc at Chidede.
“Since the pre-condition for the conduct of the primary elections is the reconstitution of the electoral college, and the electoral college has not yet been reconstituted because of the disruptions caused by the violent mob, it is not possible to hold the fresh elections today, the 27th day of July, 2025,” he said.
However, Kadzipatike said MCP remained committed to ensuring that the fresh primary election is held and that it has resolved to recommence the verification exercise.
Malawi Electoral Commission is set to close submission of nomination papers for presidential, parliamentary and loal government elections on July 30 2025.
