Court rebuffs Malawi govt on UTM registration: ‘No reasonable grounds for appeal’
High Court Judge John Chirwa has thrown out an application for leave to appeal against against the November 2 order to register the movement as a political party within seven days, saying there noo reasonable grounds for appeal.
Through senior State advocate in the Attorney General’s (AG) Chambers Neverson Chisiza, the State is challenging High Court order that the registrar of political parties’s decision not to register the movement—which is promoting Vice-President Saulos Chilima’s presidential ticket in the May 21 Tripartite Elections was erroneous.
Granting the order, Judge Chirwa said there are no good grounds advanced in the sworn statement in support of the application upon which the court would be persuaded to deprive a successful, litigant of the fruits of litigation.
“It is the considered view of this court that should the Appellant’s within appeal be successful, the same will not have been rendered nugatory by the Appellant’s compliance with this Court’s Order because the Supreme Court can, in that event, order the deregistration of UTM as a party. The application is thus declined,” reads the order dated 6th November 2018.
“The Court having made the above determination, it sees no merit in proceeding with the application set for the 13th day of November 2018, the same is hereby delisted,” reads the order.
The order effectively means that the Registrar of Political Parties is mandated to register UTM as a political party by close of business day on Friday 9th November 2018, which is the last day of the seven day period which Judge Chirwa gave him in his earlier ruling on the matter on November 2, 2018.
Government through the Attorney General, who was not party to the proceedings of the initial case, expressed interest to appeal against High Court’s ruling by seeking leave from the presiding judge to appeal and the matter was set down for hearing on Tuesday next week which the judge has declined and thrown out the application for leave to appeal.
Lawyer Michael Goba Chipeta, representing the Vice-President who challenged the rejection of the application in court, said the determination of the Court on November 2 still stands that UTM should be registered as a political party.
He said they expect the registrar of political parties to comply with the ruling.
High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal registrar Agnes Patemba also confirmed the ruling to have UTM registered is still in force.
Findings from a survey conducted by Zomba-based Institute of Public Opinion and Research (Ipor) released this week showed that UTM and its leader are the third most popular grouping after the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
The survey report, dated October 28 2018, was conducted between August and September—barely weeks after UTM was launched—to assess the political environment in the country with 10 months to the elections and give an understanding of the political and economic environment in the country.
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Looking from a different perspective as to why DPP is still fighting UTM not to register,one would think it’s because DPP is afraid that UTM would win the 2019 elections. but I should think the main reason could be that they are afraid that MCP would amass more votes than DPP and UTM because UTM mainly is using the vey same structures that DPP had put in place as one would note that the only parties that have more structures at grass roots are DPP,MCP,PP and UDF than UTM. If UTM would be allowed to register the DPP votes would… Read more »
Those of us that are in the know we know why DPP is so afraid of UTM. Chilima singlehandedly rigged the 2014 elections on behalf of DPP and none of the DPP big members are aware how he did it because they didn’t care about the process then …the only thing that mattered was the result. The fear now is he will do that again against DPP …..ntchito yiliko
I will vote for UTM basi. UTM motoooooooooooo. Wina alira. We want change!!!
Yes, keep the spotlight on SKC and UTM, keep us in the news everyday, keep the fire burning, that’s free campaign for us
So the Attorney Generals office is an extension of DPP? Can legal scholars please explain to me how the AG’s office is filing for an appeal ???
Cabinet reshuffle basi ichitika. Game yabvuta.
We may see new faces by morning tomorrow. How do you embarrass your govt? Was it deliberate? Sadly appointments will be lomwe belt which is weak now. Number of registered voters is low compared to lilongwe alone and central region.
We may see Bagus, Mchacha in cabinet and new AG
Kalulu, it seems you are very close to the appointing authority, how come that almost what you predicted has come to pass?
Koma Saulosi wavuta mpaka Attorney General wachosedwa nazo ntchito shaaaaa.
Ag was utm ?
Koma boma ili mmmm kusowa zochita komatu ndati utm moto kuti buuuuuuuuuu
Dpp govt is just being petty and childish. Stop this nosense. And I am mcp. The more you put obstacles to utm, the more you campaign for it and the more popular you make them.
You are being too childish and the whole country is laughing at you stupid dpp people. Why are you afraid for utm to be registered?
Please stop it and grow up now!!! Move on and start campaigning for your own failing dpp.
DPP, mukudzichititsa manyazi chonchi for what? Concentrate on selling your party and perhaps you will win. I mean what kind of victory would it be if you won because you denied a good chunk of the electorate from freely picking their choice of party? You are ‘decampaigning’ yourselves and appearing cowardly like Maliseche.