PP withdraws court case

Private practice lawyer Victor Gondwe yesterday withdrew a case in which the governing People’s Party (PP) sought an injunction from the High Court to stop parliamentary elections in Mzimba South West Constituency after its candidate, Vice-President Khumbo Kachali, declared support for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

On Monday this week, Kachali jointly addressed a rally with DPP presidential candidate Peter Mutharika at Mzimba Community Centre ground where he also endorsed Mutharika as the aspirant people in the Northern Region should vote for presidency.

However, on Wednesday, Kachali told The Nation that he only resigned as PP vice-president (Northern Region) and that he was an ordinary member of the party.

But in an interview yesterday, Gondwe said Kachali’s conduct rules him out of PP, arguing that a PP member cannot be campaigning for DPP.

PP acting secretary general Paul Maulidi, a lawyer by profession, who wrote the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to intervene on Kachali’s conduct, also laughed out Kachali’s claim that he is PP.

Gondwe said PP was seeking an injunction as a remedy for the party to participate in the elections because Kachali was no longer PP and going ahead with the elections would mean denying PP the right to participate in election.

However, Gondwe noted that the injunction was not obtainable because Section 114 (6) of the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections (PPE) Act stops granting of court orders to stop elections 14 days before elections.

Said Gondwe: “For now, it is too late to get an injuction. We wanted an injunction to stop the elections in the constituency, but Section 114 subsection 6 of PPE Act provides that an election cannot be stopped 14 days before the election.

“There is need to review our laws on elections because this denies remedy to parties during this time of elections.”

However, Gondwe said he has written MEC to suspend parliamentary elections in Mzimba South West to allow PP to field a candidate, arguing PP’s nomination papers are invalid.

MEC chief elections officer Willie Kalonga said MEC was aware about Kachali’s development and would issue a statement on the same.