MCP takes Chakwera to court over MEC commissioners: Mkaka seeks judicial review on appointment of Nanthulu, Duwa, Kunje and Mathanga
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is seeking judicial review on the appointment of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Commissioners Arthur Nanthulu, Steve Duwa, Linda Kunje and Jean Mathanga and in a matter filed at Lilongwe registry of the High Court, the party has put State President , the position currently held by Lazarus Chakwera, as defendant in the matter.
However, the four commissioners were appointed in June 2020 by former president Peter Mutharika – Chakwera’s predecessor.
Kunje and Mathanga were part of the MEC Commissioners who administered the May 21 2019 Presidential Election that was nullified by five judges of the High Court sitting as a Constitutional Court in Lilongwe.
MCP secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka in the judicial review application filed by lawyer Abison Chitukula, he is claiming that the former president Mutharika axed the party’s nominee to accommodate four Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)- sponsored individuals in MEC.
The application argues that MCP commissioner were supposed to be three, according to the law, but only two – Anthony Mukumbwa and Olivia Liwewe – had been appointed.
MCP cites Section 4 of the amended Electoral Commission Act of 2017 which empowers parties that obtain one-tenth of the parliamentary seats submit to the President a minimum of three nominees.
“As a qualifying political party, especially where only two political parties qualified, MCP was entitled to have all three nominees appointed, but instead the defendant (the President) appointed only two of MCP’s nominees without any reason given for rejecting the other nominee and , in contrast, appointed four for the DPP,” the application reads in part.
Mkaka argues that the MEC commissioners were not appointed in accordance with the law.
Lawyer Chitukula said Chakwera is being taken to court because “MCP is suing the President of the Republic of Malawi.”
He said: “The court will determine the question of legality, or otherwise, of the appointment of the members of the commission.”
MCP is asking the High Court, among others, to give orders that the President should appoint new commissioners and declare that the appointment of the four commissioners from DPP was illegal.
In August 2020, Attorney General (AG) Chikosa Silungwe advised Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Zangazanga Chikhosi that government would opt to be bound by the appointment of the reconstituted commission because “this is neater and mature political pragmatism”.
On whether there was any other legal remedy in dealing with the matter, the AG advised the SPC the legal remedy of judicial review was available.
However, in light of the changes in the presidency, Silungwe argued that Chakwera would be both a claimant and respondent as the incumbent President.
But MCP’s lawyer Chitukula said Chakwera can no longer be the claimant in the matter.
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The only fall back for Malawians is the sanity of our judges who should quickly discern a political party trying to consolidate power which in the end may end up manipulating MEC to their favor, the very thing we fought against. Why should MCP be afraid of a MEC which does not favor it. Actually a well balanced MEC. Why do they want us to move backwards. The moves Mchacha is making are too premature.
Kuyambila Ku magistrate court mpaka Ku supreme court kuli MCP yokhayokha. Ma cadet mulira simunati
Mpila ndiwozungulira. Liverpool won the league after 30 years now can’t even make top 4 a year later. Mcp won after 30 years and is failing miserably by all benchmarks. We shall see where they end up 2025 mpompano. Amalawi anasiya kusekelera zopusa.
This is really democrating to take president to court let me give u some sense chakwera is a State president mcp is apart so the party took him to court which is the executive of govt,same thing what happening within dpp you can take your own party or leader to court
Munya macadet! Ma judge onse are eating from our palms. They will remove your cadet commissioners.
The battle is big but if not carefully fought it will take us to one party rule in Democratic government strong opposition is quiet crucial .
It can be good if our government officials and the ruling parties can focus more on developments that can transform people’s lives
than focusing on destroying main opposition party people will not for them again into power not because they worked hard killing opposition party but by seeing transformation in brought on
their lives.
This too shall end in tears. Ooo what a blind president we have. He is busy wasting his energy on useless things. I am worried. We are going nowhere.
English is your main handicap my friend. Why accusing Chakwera on this matter. Chakwera is the one being sued as the state president.Yor hate foe Chakwera is too much and wont take you anywhere
It is only when courts are useless and judgements heavily biased and compromised that politicians begin to play monkey tricks with the courts. MCP is very much aware that our courts have become very blind to justice such that whatever MCP dictates the courts to do, the stupid Malawi judiciary will do just that. MCP could not have dreamt of this nosense if our courts were upright. Ours is a miscarriage of justice that’s why MCP wants but to get away with it. But Chakwera must be careful with zibwana za Mkaka. We are all watching this keenly and we are not that stupid as Chakwera thinks.
Chakwera is MCP and MCP is Chakwera. It is a violation and abuse of use of courts for any person to go to court with the sore purpose of losing the case. Just pause for a second, if by a miracle the court rules in favour of Chakwera and rejects MCP claim, instead of celebrating that Chakwera has won, it will be the opposite. He will be seeking for another Judicial review until he loses. It is a fundamental principle of law, you go to court to win and not to lose. Chakwera is going to court with one objective to lose the case. Oh my God! Where is this county heading??
Now eh cakwela eh cakwela
i got no sides here . why are we bringing this milandu ina bwa siikuonekera poyera. tidzava liti za pitala
getu
nomani
muhara etc
kodi mai anathawila ku UK uja patting her back tiziti ‘job well dine” tinagwilizana nayo
kaphale and Sam ankafuna kufa ndi thukuta lake lo.we uja basi tinangowasiya. hetini!!!!
adadi akupukuta the fleet of cars and piles of njinga akusunga ku mangocizi!!!!
please mabwana inu give us some sanity here
The woman you are referring to never run away from Malawi to UK. She passed through your borders and you endorsed her passport and cleared her to leave the country as a free citizen.
I would suggest to you , possibly you are not hearing the cases of the other people you have named in your writing, Possibly Tonse Alliance made you to believe there is a case against them. But once again an allegation is just an allegstion.
If you do not have evidence that meet normal standards of a court that follows the universal principle of Rule Law, then those cases I guess they will be in the pending box for ever.
Use that money to implement 1,000,000 jobs instead of wasting these scarce resources in political vendetta cases
So you call electoral process mess up a political vendetta? And for Jane Assah going out does not mean she is out of reach. If need be she can be extradited and you’ll once again back her up as an innocent woman. Kagwere uko cadet.
What will Chakwera defence lawyer be arguing in this case! His task will be simple. He will be arguing with weak arguments with the motive to lose the case. He knows the best interest and position of his client (Chakwera) in this case is to lose. A normal court of law which abides by the Rule of Law will within minutes if not seconds dismiss this case not to take off the ground. This case should be thrown out of the window and stop wasting tax payers money. Subsidize the long awaited passport fee and many other promises. Attorney General whom to my opinion was not the right person to investigate the missing 6.2 billion for Corona, should be involved in real matters and not political matters. 6.2 billion should be investigated by independent body and not government investigating itself. This is again democracy at its crashing point
Absolutely travesity of justice. This is a case of becoming Judge and jury in your own case. Democracy going to the lowest of the lowest mark
Chakwera got no balls. You are a president bwana, not a vice or a minister. Call the shots dude. You are showing weakness. I hope you realize that this mkaka can turn against you in a flash. Hes the sort of guy that can follow your vice and boot you out. As it is, for you to do another term, you have to change your MCP constitution, do you think this mkaka will have your back? Get rid of him bwana.
Did u just say we have a eunuch for president. Mayi kalanga!
Nothing strange in this. It’s true nkhutukumve APM made illegal appointments from DPP. The headline is confusing.
It’s planned do not confuse us. Malo mokonza maunduna
Zaku court zo ayi koma achite step down, sakutha kulamulirira dziko akulitenga ngati Assembles Of God Church. Achoke wationjeza. Za mutchalichi zeni zeni akuchita iyeyo zokondera. Mulungu mukudziwa zonse ndinu. Palibe angakuuzeni zochita koma Chitani naye Chakwera yu pa anthu anu. Tiyatsireni moto tapota nanu. Achoke akuluwa basi aononga zambiri.
pitalaso sankauzika pajaso
Anapita chifukwa chosamva watsala nyani uyu
Ziri bwino.If these people are found to be there iligally it means that everything they performed during this period has been iligal.Therefore automatically No President,no MP.,no Cancellor has been elected. Straight forward.
Nkhani ndiyofuna kumabela zisankho. Anthu anasankhidwa and administered free and fair elections which you won. Why is it being an issue now?
Excellent! Cadet amve kuwawa .dziko lili mmanja mwathu. Khothi ndi judge onse wathu.
Yes khothi ndi judge nduwanu. Making Malawi a world laughing stock
By the way I urge you to read and study what you undestand by these three arms in a developed and civilized countries: Spend sometime to read please. If you need help please let me know, I will lecture you for free : The three arms I want you to spend your Easter Monday reading through are:
1.Executive
2.Legislature /Parliament
3 Judiciary
Apakwawo ndimidzu yakachere yokumana pansi.
MCP playing smart. However, there is a thin line of conflict of interest in this matter when ones looks at the practical implications of the physical being interests.
MCP please give us a break. All you are doing is playing games knowing that the courts are on your side. Why can’t you sue Chakwera for allowing MERA to raise fuel and electricity prices which has caused a lot of poor Malawians to suffer for exorbitant prices of good and transport in Malawi. Don’t think you will continue with this honey moon forever. God is watching. The courts you are relying on will turn upside down and you will cry. Just watch a day is coming when your honeymoon will be over
That is stupidity of the highest order. Nkaka is one of the useless senior members of MCP.
This is nonsense and just time wasting, as a country we have to move on and focus on avoiding such mistakes in future, rather than spending court time solving past mistakes that will not bring positive change on life of ordinary citizen….
What mkaka is doing is a mistake, and he’s misleading our president. The same MEC composition delivered a credible election, that put its party leader as a state president. Why then wasting time with such issues anymore. This is malawi government not personal farm. We all knows kuti former mec did wrongs, but their leader (asah ) paid for those wrong doings. Osalawa kungowasiya term yawo ithe basi…..
Mwayamba kukhazikika mwayambapo masanje, anthu akulukulu kumapanga phada ngati ameneyu, manyazi bwanji? Just fire the commissioners or let them be other than taking Malawians for granted, ichi ndi chibwana cha mchombo lende mwayambachi!
What MCP cohorts are doing is laughable, myopic and childish. One wonders as to how long they will live in denial that we are in a democratic dispensation whereby views by every individual has to be entertained. Nobody is dreaming of sliding back to the one party archaic system and no matter how long your cherry picking tendencies will be tried, no sane Malawian will toe that line.
Chakwera (disguised as Mkaka), hence suing himself, should discern that due process was followed in order to have those people in question assigned posts and duties in their own capacity within MEC. If the issue is that the numbers representing eligible parties do not tally, then bulldoze your assertions as you normally do, and have equitable representation like DPP. Stop beating about the bush and have confidence in your acts as the President instead of hiding behind Mkaka. The most unfortunate thing is that the system in play now does not allow “Kanga ndiwamba” mentality. Otherwise you very much would have wished to see MCP as the only political party in the country. Gone are those days when you treated people as second class citizens. Wind of change blew and sanity was instituted although your forefather tried to resist that change, the majority dictated. You don’t dare bring back mediocrity. You guys have a big problem, yes that of not believing up to now that you won and that what Malawians want to see is development on top of an inclusive governmental system. When are you going to start delivering? If you’re failing to manage, then leave the leadership under the tutelage of Dr. S. K. Chilima who can ably do a commendable job. Be serious please, aBusa!!
Jean Mathanga and Linda Kunje you are my ladies mukuzunguza mitu ya azibambo ama suit awo zedi.I salute you!
The story is very interesting. It simply shows MCP is trying to bail out Chakwera because he has been cornered by Mathanga and Kunje, but the move won’t work – these two women will carry the day no matter what. You are wasting time with trivial things instead of giving us a new Cabinet. We do not even know when we will have 200 jobs because I know 1million is just too much for you pathological liers.
Cabinet will remain the same .the dude called president has no balls to fire errant boys like Nkaka, chimwendo and Chiponda. Worse still we have a stupid leader of opposition who is sinning with the enemy. While Nkalka. Chikhosi and others are busy messing up the dude is mute. Nankhumwa is probably the most stupid and useless leader of opposition.
Is this what you think Malawians voted you in for?. Please focus on developing the country. Your campaign promises. Malawians are fucking suffering. Can’t even afford cooking oil. So please just catch the thieves from the previous government and retrieve the stolen money and fucken arrest yourselves for stealing the 6.2 billion kwacha too.
Mkaka and MCP knows to that Kunje and Mathanga will be there in 2025, it will be difficult for them to manipulate the votes for Chakwela. But this is a failed scheme. Time is the best revealer, let us wait and see. Chakwela is desperate how unpopular he is becoming because of failing to fullfil his promises, increasing fuel price and increasing Escom electricity tariff. Signs of a failed leader.
Politics of hatred. Waiting to see how it goes