The Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal has halted temporarily, a High Court decision to nullify the victory of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Martha Munthali-Ngwira in the Mzimba Hora Constituency parliamentary race.
The determination dated December 1 2025, made by Justice of Appeal Dingiswayo Madise essentially reinstates Munthali-Ngwira as member of Parliament, pending appeal of the matter, a request which the judge has also granted.
According to an order, Civil Application Number 58 of 2025, made at the Supreme Court in Blantyre, the court granted the stay on the lower court’s ruling and permission for Munthali-Ngwira to appeal after the High Court denied her the same applications.
Reads in part the order: “Having read the two applications for leave to appeal and an order of stay of the execution of the judgement, the two applications having been denied in the court below… It is our considered view that the balance of justice tilts towards the granting of leave and an order of stay ex-parted pending appeal for to decide otherwise will render the appeal nugatory.”
But since the stay of the High Court ruling is temporary, Madise ordered that Ngwira should, within 14 days, file an interpartes application for continuation of the stay order while at the same time allowing the defendants to reply to the fresh applications within the same period.
The Supreme Court has scheduled that the matter will be held within 21 days.
In a judgement delivered in Mzuzu last week, High Court 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.
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.
