Ambokire manifesto case goes to  court, multiparty forum quashes it

Lawyer Ambokire Salim is  facing Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) legal team in the High Court as the battle on whether politicians should be forced to deliver on their campaign promises or not starts in earnest n the afternoon.

MEC spokesman Sangwani Mwafulirwa said MEC attorneys has already applied that the pollster be grated leave for judicial review.

He however refused to comment on Salim’s view, saying the commission’s stance would be known in court as commenting on the issue which is already in court would be prejudice.

Salim wants the court to rule that politicians who fail to deliver on their campaign promises, usually contained in party manifestos, must be punished for lying to unsuspecting voters.

However, Kizito Tenthani, Centre for Multiparty Democracy executive director punched holes in Salim’s interview in an interview Wednesday, saying the case would likely collapse.

“I don’t understand how the lawyer wants to do that because a manifesto is just a wish list of those aspiring to be in government or to hold a public office. To come u with a legislation to force a politician fulfill a wish list is baffling,” he said.

He said though these sounds good, it would be difficult to enforce such a legislation.

Tenthani said some of the promises could not be fulfilled because of financial constraints and the executive is not the only branch of government to make dreams come a reality as parliament has to be consulted as well on some issues so what if parliament rejects some of the promises.

He also was of the view that Salim has sued a wrong party, saying MEC mandate is to run elections, they are managers of a electoral process.

“Maybe he could have sued the registrar of political parties, maybe, but I don’t subscribe to this idea anyway,” he said.

Tenthani gave credit to President Peter Mutharika for implementing some of his campaign promises, saying he promised to have a 20 member cabinet, he has stuck to that.