Gwalidi’s re-examination exposes illegalities in Malawi 2019 elections

Second  witness of UTM  Party Mirriam Gwalidi’s re-examination in the historic presidential elections case at the Constitutional Court  in Lilongwe has exposed a lot of alterations in the way votes were managed during the May 21 elections.

Gwalidi’s,  who is being re-examined by lawyer  Bright Theu for first petitioner Saulos Chilima, told the pannel of five judges hearing the case that she found some monitors making deliberate alterations in Blantyre City which affected the counting of total valid cast votes for both candidates and station tally results.

The alterations, she said, were either through using of fake tally sheets or white correction fluid Tippex.

For example, Gwalidi said she personally found a presiding officer, assistant presiding officers and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)  monitors altering results for Ndirande Matope center.

“When I asked about the log books at the tally center, I was told they are locked up and cannot be accessed and I was also told that the tally sheets were also locked up in the headmaster’s office at Ndirande School center.

“After we discussed, they agreed that they were altering results without using actual figures. I lodged a complaint but they refused to sign for it. Later at Ndirande Matope, I found monitors who said the presiding officer was changing results in their  presence. I again lodged a complaint and left,” said Gwalidi, who was a roving monitor for UTM from the main Malawi Electoral  Commission (MEC) Tally Center.

She further cited three cases of alterations like Home Primary School and Kankhombe School.

At Gole School said Gwalidi, spoiled votes and total number were altered, unused ballots total number were altered as well as the total null and void which led to the column of total valid cast votes to be altered as well.

“Once this happen, the total cast votes per candidate change again because the reconciliation votes used are altered,” she said.

At Kakhobwe School, Gwalidi told the court that there were a total of 15 valid cast votes which were not counted for which in turn affected the total count which after talking it showed a total of 900 valid votes cast instead of 915.

“The changes were both on data reconciliation part and per candidate total vote count. This resulted into the alteration of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate station and stream total votes, United Democratic Front (UDF) candidates votes were also altered and DPP stream votes were also altered,” Gwalidi told the called and further disclosed that the tally sheets she used from these centers were provided to her by DPP monitors.

After Gwalidi’s testimony, Darlington Ndasauka will be a third UTM witness to stand in the dock.

Being heard by a panel of five judges, Potani, Mike Tembo, Dingiswayo Madise, Redson Kapindu and Ivy Kamanga, the case has Chilima as the first petitioner and Malawi Congress Party president Lazarus Chakwera as the second petitioner.

Mutharika of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in his capacity as the declared winner, is the first respondent with MEC as the second respondent.

The petitioners contend that Mutharika “won a fraudulent election” fraught with irregularities, including alleged tampering with election results sheets through correction fluid, popularly known as Tippex.