Court orders Chakwera’s key witness to amend his supplementary statement

Five Judges hearing the presidential election petition case  in the Constitutional Court in Lilongwe have ordered third witnesses for Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential hopeful Lazarus Chakwera, Peter Lackson Chimangeni to amend his supplementary statement following the irregularities in some of the pages.

As Attorney General (AG) Kalekeni Kaphale continued cross examining Chimangeni, it was discovered that the statement had problems as some pages were not corresponding to each other.

The Court’s direction followed an oral application by MCP lawyers to have Chimangeni sign for the changes which was opposed by Kaphale.

Judge president  Heally Potani directed tChimangeni should make the changes before 4pm on Friday before adjourning the case to Monday.

In an interview with Nyasa Times, private practicing lawyer representing Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Tamando Chokotho said the case was going on smoothly until they observed the anormalies in the documents.

“We started well until we discovered that the documents of the second petitioner (MCP) were not in order which caused the delays,” he said.

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