Legal expert backs Kaphale over Malawi poll date setting

A legal expert has said the Legal Affairs Committee has no powers to write the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to set date for the holding of the presidential election.

This was after the Legal Affairs Committee of parliament chairperson Kezzie Msukwa confirmed having written MEC that the election be held on June 23, 2020.

But Constitutional law professor Edge Kanyongolo says it was illegal for the committee to write the pollster on the matter.

“This issue should be debated at the plenary. A parliamentary committee is not parliament. Parliament is the whole House meeting at the plenary,” he said.

He said the committee would just have made recommendations to the plenary on the date for the election, not fixing the date.

Msukwa said he could not seek legal opinion from the Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale, describing him as compromised.

However, Kaphale, who is goverment’s chief legal adviser, wrote back the committee, telling it that MEC will ignore the date fixed by the committee for the election, saying the committee has no Constitutional powers to fix such a date.