Exit Alfandika, enter Munkhondya: MEC continues making its defence in Malawi elections case

After a grueling process by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM Party lawyers, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chief Elections Officer breathed relief with the end of his re-examination by his lawyer Tamando Chokotho which provided an opportunity for MEC to build its case.

Alfandika told the court that he had come to know of the missing pages in the BDO Jordan auditors report during the cross-examination by MCP lawyer, Modecai Msisha on Monday, December 2 2019 who wanted to pin his as to why they never picked up the issue with the auditors if the report was discussed by the Commission.

The MEC boss said he did not agree with all things in the audit report and wrote a management letters to the auditors highlighting the issues he did not agree with as it is done in any audit process but up to date they have not responded.

“After a long waiting, the auditors said that they have noted that the reports was being used in the court as evidence and they were concerned with that and they would not do any amendment,” Alfandika told the court.

Counsel Chokotho produced a letter by Alfandika to BDO.

UTM and MCP lawyers tried to object to the letter but after a debate the document was accepted and presented in court.

MEC boss also took time to explain causes of inconsistencies during ballot paper reconciliation and vote counting which was the cause of most of the corrections on results sheets.

Causes for imbalance, if ballot papers were obtained from another centre and not updated the record. Also when you do physical count and the number found is less than what was supposed to be.

Alfandika said the ballot paper reconciliation cannot balance if some extra ballot papers were obtained from another polling station, which is a normal practice, and the presiding officer forgets to add that to the total number of ballot papers received.

He added this challenge can also occur when during physical counting of the ballot papers received it is discovered that the actual received were more or less than indicated.

Alfandika, who holds a Masters degree in Economics from Chancellor College, also explained that there no relationship between economics and electoral laws and that in elections are no suppositions but facts.

The petitioners has started cross -examining MECs director of electoral services, Henzily Munkhondya.