Chakwera witness takes stand: Chapwetaka’s claims ‘unsubstantiated, says MEC lawyer

The Constitutional Court sitting in Lilongwe continue  hearing testimony from one of the witnesses for Malawi Congress Party (MCP)  presidential hopeful Lazarus Chakwera who has been quizzed why he did not bring any an inventory of electoral records.

Chakwera, who is second petitioner in the case, is alongside UTM Party president Saulos Chilima (first petitioner), challenging the re-election of President Peter Mutharika, alleging that the presidential results in May were marred by irregularities and fraud.

In the witness stand, Richard Chapweteka, who was roving monitor for MCP in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections, is undergoing cross-examination.

On Tuesday lawyer represent Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) the second respondent, Tamanda Chokhohto and lawyer Frank Mbeta for Mutharika (first respondent) cross-examined Chapweteka.

Chapweteka, who monitored MEC’s printing of the ballot papers in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, said in cross-examination that they were given a checklist by MEC after printing and packaging was done.

Lawyer Chokotho  asked Chapweteka how rigging was to be done when they had advised their monitors not to sign for forms filled with false information. In response, the witness demanded that MEC should show them figures appearing on original forms and not duplicates.

Chapweteka  told the court that duplicate forms of results sheets were used in the elections and that the tally sheets used were duplicate.

But Mbeta asked Chapweteka to prove his claim

“This is proved on page 48 of my sworn statement. The counterfeit were handwritten and barcodes did not match with the original copy,” said Chapweteka.

In an interview, lawyer Chokhotho said the MCP witness “lacked some evidence.”

He said: “His evidence related to forms used by MEC in determining the results of the elections.”

“There were also other allegations that monitors were not given results sheets, what we were showing the court is that basically this witness allegations were unsubstantiated.”

Mbeta, who had made Chapweteka to admit that some of the claims he made in his sworn statement in regards to Constitution and the law were his opinion, will finish cross-examining the witness Wednesday.

Chapweteka then will enter into re-examination with Chakwera’s lawyers to re-align his evidence.