Concourt allows MEC’s Chisi to do own simulation to counter argue Suleman

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) hearing  presidential elections nullification petition  has allowed the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) IT director Muhabi Chisi to make a presentation in the court his own simulation to counter argue Malawi Congress Party (MCP) hired IT expert Daudi Suleman, rejecting an application by UTM and MCP to block Chisi simulation.

Lead judge Healey Potani however said the simulation should not be for the purpose of traversing evidence presented by MCP’s sixth witness Daudi Suleman through his simulation.

This means MEC director of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Muhabi Chisi will be allowed to simulate and demonstrate to the court technical evidence as to what transpired during the May 21 polls.

Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale applied to the court to allow Chisi simulate the data after Daudi illustrated in the court how he believes MEC results management system was hijacked and mismanaged.

But judge Potani said in the ruling that the court has repeatedly called on parties to proceed with some steps which are in the interest of justice unless it will prejudice the case.

Potani pointed out that in Chisi doing his own simulation “there is no such prejudice.”

Said Potani:”The court ultimately believes that both parties should have the opportunity to demonstrate using the very system that is in doubt. As such, in the spirit of putting both parties on an equal footing, the witness should be allowed to demonstrate his evidence, just like Mr. Daudi Suleman,” said Potani.

He added: “Therefore in the spirit of putting both parties in the equal footing, the court will allow Mr Chisi to simulate his evidence.”

However, the court ruling said the simulation will not be for the purposes traversing Suleman’s evidence.

The court also ruled that Chisi should be confined within  his sworn statement.

“It is accordingly ordered and let the parties be guided,” Potani said in the ruling.

In his simulation, Suleman demonstrated how MEC’s computerised election result management system (RMS) was allegedly breached by a ‘ghost’ operator to change the results of the presidential elections in favour of incumbent Peter Mutharika.

Suleman further provided evidence to back a theory that the results were not credible.

Using graphical evidence, Suleman demonstrated to the court first how the computer system left trailing evidence that information which had earlier been uploaded in the system was later deleted by the hacker or group of hackers.

The witness also demonstrated how the election results were entered and transmitted in the MEC computerised system by the hacker within milliseconds and further demonstrated how this was impossible using a human effort.

Suleman further provided other digital evidence that the results were not a reflection of the tallied votes from the various polling centres in the country, including a detailed graphic illustration of how data analysis of the results indicates that only results from some 2 002 polling centres were entered in the election system instead all the 5 002 polling centres in the country.

If results from all the polling centres were entered in the RMS, Suleman demonstrated the difference in digital footprints the MEC database could have registered, saying at a certain point in elections, the hacker penetrated the election system, altered the results and deleted certain information.

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