ConCourt reserves ruling on gadget use evidence in Malawi elections case
Lead judge in the ongoing landmark presidential election case at the Constitutional Court in Lilongwe was forced at last minute to reserve a ruling on whether a Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera’s witness can use gadgets in the court to amplify his evidence.
Potani was about to hand down the ruling as to whether IT expert Daudi Sulemani could use the gadgets, including a laptop when the Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale stood up and said Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) lawyer Tamanda Chokhotho wanted to submit arguments in response to the arguments put forward by MCP lawyers.
President Peter Mutharika and MEC lawyers applied to the court last week to set aside the court’s earlier ruling to allow the use of the gadgets in the courts.
On Monday, the MCP withdrew the party’s director of youth Richard Chimwendo Banda as a sixth witness in the case.
Lead lawyer for the MCP Mordecai Msiska said this was done because the evidence which Chimwendo Banda was supposed to give was already given by the party secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka.
Msiska also said this would speed up the hearing of the case as Malawians are anxious to have it concluded as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Msisha, downplayed Mec’s fears that the use of a gadget would compromise the security of Mec’s system.
“We have responded using the IT expertise that we have from Suleman to show that he will not acquire any knowledge about their system which could be used to compromise its security. He already has a database which Mec provided and he will use that,” he said.
The court continued on Tuesday when lawyer Frank Mbeta for President Mutharika, who is second respondent in the case, cross-examined Mkaka.
MEc is a waste of time
What are Mec and DPP fearing?The elections were transparent this the song Mec has been singing but why shivering now with the use of gadgets in court?
I think must allow Sulemani to gadget as his Evidence wether Mec and Dpp wants or not! Because people are waiting to see what move did Mec and Dpp used for riggem.
Malaya athina
Maybe Kaphale’s reasoning is really beyond ordinary comprehension. This is the guy who constantly claims that petitioners’ submissions in court lack substantive evidence, are hearsays/ mere opinions as opposed to facts, etc. But when his counterparts try to bring evidence beyond reasonable doubt with witnesses (watched irregularities and illegalities in real-time) Kaphale becomes agitated again coming up with all legal gymnastics to block the whole process. Mind you these witnesses are not outside consultants, they are Malawians who just happen to have reasonably sufficient IT expertise & had witnessed the electoral freud process. One wonders what Kaphale is really up… Read more »
Just curious why the MEC and it’s lawyers are playing dumb. They know for sure there will be no need to access their servers. A database was already provided which Daud Suleman is going to use to “simulate” what the audit trail shows to have “possibly happened”. This will just be a demonstration on his laptop of how a database system interfaces with a client system (whether web-based as was the case with the MEC system or desk-stop based). Why couldn’t they get their IT expert Chisi to explain it in court. I read through the Daud Suleman’s findings and… Read more »
Mcp don’t even want to re-examine hon mkaka. Kkkkkkk. Useless witness
MEC is already a compromised institution. They were not worried when their computer finds its way to Mozambique and back on a train. Let the nation know the truth if this is the only way to do so.