MCP drags Chief Secretary, minister to court over Malawi election body’s move
The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and three of its MPs have launched an explosive legal battle against two senior government figures, accusing them of brazenly defying a court order in a bitter row over the Malawi Electoral Commission’s (MEC) headquarters.
Contempt charges have been filed against Chief Secretary to Government Justin Saidi and Minister of Lands and Housing Development Chimwemwe Chipungu, with the party alleging the pair deliberately sabotaged efforts to pay rent on a warehouse being used by MEC in Njewa, Lilongwe.
The bitter dispute erupted after President Peter Mutharika issued an executive order directing MEC to relocate its operations to Blantyre — a move MCP and its legislators fiercely opposed, successfully obtaining a court order on 5 June 2026 that halted the relocation and compelled government to keep paying rent on the Lilongwe premises.
But in a fresh court filing, MCP accuses the two officials of quietly undermining that very order through inaction, pointing to “deliberate neglect by the Respondents to expedite, facilitate or process and or authorize the renewal of tenancy” for the Capital Development Limited premises on Plot No. 13/116 in Lilongwe.
MCP’s director of legal services George Kadzipatike didn’t mince his words in a sworn statement, branding the officials’ failure to process the rental payments as nothing short of open defiance of the courts.
“That I repeat the foregoing and maintain that the Respondents’ conduct herein is amenable to contempt of Court proceedings and it is proper that the Respondents be dealt with for contempt of Court,” Kadzipatike argues in the explosive filing.
Kadzipatike went further, insisting the June 5 order handed down by Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda explicitly restrains the two officials from taking any steps to relocate MEC to Blantyre or elsewhere — and that failure to pay the rent amounts to a direct breach of that ruling.
“[This is] in direct contravention of this order,” he said.
The legal action has been brought by MCP alongside three of its sitting MPs — Emmanuel Chambulanyina Jere (Mzimba South), Abraham Mwakhwawa (Karonga Lufilya) and Daniel Mwanyongo Chitonya (Karonga Town) — who are listed as the first, second, third and fourth applicants respectively in the case.
The escalating legal row sets the stage for a fresh courtroom showdown, with all eyes now on whether Saidi and Chipungu will be found in contempt over their handling of the Electoral Commission’s Lilongwe premises.
