MCP lawyer threatens contempt proceedings over unpaid rent at MEC’s Lilongwe warehouse
George Kadzipatike, the lawyer representing the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and three of its legislators who secured a court injunction blocking the relocation of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to Blantyre, has threatened further legal action unless the Commission’s outstanding rent is settled.
MEC is facing a deadline to pay approximately K885 million in rental arrears on its warehouse at Njewa in Lilongwe within five days, after the Sheriff of Malawi issued a Notice of Distress warning that the Commission’s property could be sold to recover the debt if payment is not made.
Kadzipatike has alleged that the non-payment of rent to the landlord forms part of a deliberate strategy to force MEC’s relocation to Blantyre, a move his clients have already succeeded in blocking through the courts.
He said the Chief Secretary and the Minister of Lands remain subject to ongoing High Court proceedings over the same tenancy dispute, after the court stayed their decisions relating to the non-renewal of MEC’s tenancy agreements.
“The Notice of Distress from the Sheriff of Malawi shows that payment of rent to the landlord must happen within 5 days, I think from the date of execution,” Mr Kadzipatike said.
“If this order is breached and payment does not happen, it means the Chief Secretary and the Minister of Lands are in contempt of the High Court of Malawi and we shall immediately file for contempt of court against the two public officers.”
Responding to the allegations, MEC’s director of media and public relations, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, said the Commission was actively engaging relevant authorities and the landlord to resolve the outstanding administrative processes and regularise the tenancy arrangement.
The dispute over MEC’s premises has become one of the more closely watched administrative rows in Malawi in recent months, not least because it touches directly on the operational independence of the body responsible for overseeing the country’s elections.
Questions over where the Commission is based, and under what tenancy terms, carry weight beyond ordinary property management: MEC’s ability to function smoothly, retain institutional memory and maintain continuity of records is widely regarded as important to public confidence in the electoral process, particularly as the country looks ahead to future polls.
The underlying legal dispute originated when government sought to relocate MEC’s operations to Blantyre, a decision that prompted MCP and its affiliated legislators to seek judicial intervention on the grounds that the move had not followed proper process and risked disrupting the Commission’s work.
The High Court’s decision to grant an injunction, followed by its subsequent stay of the government’s non-renewal decisions on MEC’s Lilongwe tenancies, has left the matter in a prolonged state of legal limbo, with neither side able to proceed decisively while litigation continues.
The prospect of contempt proceedings against two senior public officials — the Chief Secretary and the Minister of Lands — would mark a significant escalation, placing individual accountability for the standoff squarely on those overseeing the government’s handling of the tenancy matter, rather than treating it as a purely institutional dispute between MEC and its landlord.
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