DPP files for nullification of Chakwera’s election

Some concerned Malawians have taken to the social media, expressing fear that erstwhile Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could risk spending all its resources on paying lawyers as the party continues to make more additions to its litany of cases in the courts.

Already, Malawians are getting impatient with the delayed outcome of the case in which the party’s embattled Leader of Opposition, Kondwani Nankhumwa, dragged the party to court over alleged defamatory remarks against him.

On March 2 this year, Nankhumwa dragged Sheik Imran Mtenje, Brown Mpinganjira, Zeria Chakale and Charles Mchacha to court for alleging that the Leader of Opposition was behind the violence that occurred at a press briefing the four held in Lilongwe.

Additionally, the courts are yet to determine the case in which DPP took Nankhumwa, Jappie Mhango, Greselder Jeffrey and another for allegedly defying the party’s President Arthur Peter Mutharika on the appointment of the Leader of Opposition.

As if that was not enough, the former governing party has filed another suit at the High Court of Malawi, seeking nullification of the court-ordered June 23 2020 Fresh Presidential Election.

The party claims since the High Court judge Kenyatta Nyirenda ruled that the former DPP Commissioners at the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) were illegally appointed, it then follows that there was no Commission to conduct the election in which President Lazarus Chakwera emerged a victor.

DPP Director of Legal Affairs Charles Mhango said the application was made last week.

Mhango said Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda erred in his recent ruling on the MEC Commissioners’ case when he said that the nullification of the commissioners would not affect the outcome of last year’s vote.

He argued that Justice Nyirenda was not sitting as a Constitutional Court and therefore went beyond his mandate to insinuate that the nullification of the Commissioners would not affect the outcome of the June 23 presidential election.

On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera appointed new MEC Commissioners with none of the previous members featuring on the list.

Ironically, this time, DPP nominated totally new faces in the name of the former Nsanje Central Constituency legislator, Francis Lazaro Kasaila, Dr. Emmanuel Fabiano, and Ms Caroline Mfune while MCP has re-nominated its Richard Chapweteka who was rejected by former President Peter Mutharika.