Khumbo Soko done with cross-examining ‘jittering’ Munkhondya of MEC

On eof the lawyers for UTM Party president Saulos Chilima, Khumbo Soko, on Wednesday morning rounded off cross examining jittering Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) witness Hensley Munkhondya who signed off by bringing in total figures of affected total valid votes and altered or fake results sheet.

It was evident from the start on the day that Munkhondya will have a tough ride, as he kept on skirting around questions when answering as well as trying to be very difensive on a straight forward issue, prompting the court to remind him on the importance of listening carefully to questions so that he gives straight answers.

He also kept on asking the lawyer to repeat questions, even when he had already started giving answers, which irked Soko who complained of time wasting.

The cross-examination  tackled issues of unaccounted for ballots papers, reconciliation or resolving outstanding issues on vote counting as as problematic tally sheets.

Through cross examination, it was discovered that at the time of announcing presidential results, about 634 ballot papers were not counted for.

“Did MEC account or find out what happened to these papers and where they have gone?” asked Soko to which Munkhondya answered “yes” after the question was repeated thrice.

He further asked if there was an outstanding error at the time of announcing the result which the witness said there was none saying they were resolved at that time.

“How were they resolved?” asked Soko

“Through a proper verification process from the polling station to the main tally center,” answered Munkhondya.

However, it was also noted that some log books were empty and some form 66Cs were not signed by any official.

“If a log book is blank, how do you validate a form?” asked Soko

“At the polling station, there is a form 66C left with the presiding officers so even if we have nothing in the log book we have a backing form,” he answered before telling the court that it was important for presiding officers to write in the log book.

Munkhondya also told the court that he had not information as to how many votes were recorded on duplicate papers as well as total numbers of duplicates used.

He failed to challenge that a total of 1 593 334 valid votes were affected, there were 1 330 486  altered tally sheets, a total of 1 120 104 valid votes were not signed by any person, there were 524 340 tippexed results sheet and there were a total of 188 172 fake or handwritten results sheets which were used.

The second petitioner, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera lawyers started cross examining Munkhondya Wednesday afternoon.

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