Malawi elections case may wind up Saturday Dec 7

The ongoing elections case, being heard in the High Court in Lilongwe, sitting as a Constitutional Court, is likely to  conclude on Saturday December 7 2019 a  day after its scheduled finish deadline.

Judge Healey Potani, who is chairing the five-judge panel that also includes Dingiswayo Madise,  Redson Kapindu, Ivy Kamanga and Mike Tembo,  said the court is determined to conlude hearing testimonies in the case by Friday.

He said if the Friday deadline is missed, the court will extend to Saturday to finish the parade of witnesses and wind up the case.

The court always adjourns on Friday at lunch hour.

But before an adjournment on Tuesday, lead judge Potani proposed that the court sits on Saturday.

“It is clear that with the pace the case is moving, chances are very high that the case will not wind up on Friday as earlier suggested,” he said.

Potani said the court will also sit full day on Friday.

He also suggested that the court should trim hours that lawyers cross examine and re-examine witnesses to save time.

“We said we are going to finish hearing the case on December 6, but looking at the business that is  ahead of us and in respect of the examination that is to come, it would be a challenge to beat that deadline. However, with the cooperation of all the parties, we can make it.

“We are going to discuss the final details of this in the chamber on Wednesday but just to give you a picture; we need to work up to six o’clock on Friday. The other way would be to reduce the time allocated to the parties in the  re-examination, ion the worst case scenario, we may have to sit up to Saturday,” said Potani.

UTM Party president Saulos Chilima and his counterpart,  Lazarus Chakwera the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential hopeful, want results of the Tripartite Elections nullified on allegations that MEC mismanaged them and unduly announced the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Peter Mutharika as winner.

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