Lilongwe election rerun stay order extended until an appeal – Supreme Court

A stay order against  High Court judge Esme Chombo’s ruling that Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) should go ahead to conduct a rerun of the Lilongwe City South East election where a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Bentry Namasasu was declared a winner has been extended by Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal.

The Supreme Court judge Richard Chinangwa extended the stay order  on Tuesday  until an appeal on the matter is heard.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate Ulemu Msungama challenged the results of the May 20 Tripartite Elections parliamentary race in the constituency on the basis that his votes were counted as the DPP candidate’s.

Namasasu applied to court not to implement the court order for a rerun pending an appeal which Justice Chinangwa ruled that the stay order should remain in force.

According to Namasasu’s lawyer, Chancy Gondwe, that ruling means that Namasasu “ will remain the MP of the area until the appeal is heard whose date we are yet to get.”

Justice Chombo is on record saying Namasasu’s appeal  is “a back-door attempt to put on file the submissions that he failed to make at the appropriate time.”

But lawyer Gondwe argued that Chombo made a ruling without properly quarantining evidence before it.