MCP vindicated on Mutharika’s legitimacy – Kabwila

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) spokeswoman Dr Jessie Kabwila says the party feel vindicated with the report by the taxpayer-funded Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on controversial May 20 Tripartite Elections which has questioned the legitimacy of President Peter Mutharika.

MCP has been claiming that Mutharika was ruling through stolen votes but that their party leader Rev Lazarous Chakwera urged them not to react to avoid plunging the nation into turmoil.

Kabwila welcomed the MHRC report; it was a vindication of the MCP and other stakeholders’ positions that the elections “were not credible.”

Said the MCP spokeswoman: “We very much feel vindicated.”

Kabwila said MHRC report also add credence to You Centre for Multi-party Democracy [CMD] report which al indicated that “the election results were not credible.”

She insisted MCP and Chakwera legitimately won the elections but DPP stole their victory.

The outcome of the presidential results was mired in controversy amid allegations of rigging and confusion over how the Malawi Electoral Commission should have proceeded in the wake of conflicting court rulings on vote counting.

The results of the vote were announced on 30 May, minutes after the High Court refused a last-ditch attempt to block their release and allow time for a recount.

The MHRC report launched on Thursday in Lilongwe said the elections that ushered Mutharika to power was lacking fairness, transparency and credibility.

Commissioner Reverend Zac Kawalala told a news conference that the eventual outcome was in dispute and aspects of the report point to questions over Mutharika’s legitimacy “which the public must take note.”

DPP spokesperson and the party’s leader in Parliament Francis Kasaila dismissed MHRC report, saying “more credible institutions declared the results credible, free and fair.”