MCP witness presents ‘compelling evidence’ of rigging in Malawi polls
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera’s fourth witness Anthony Bendulo has presented “compelling evidence” of rigging to subvert the will of the people by Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) IT officers turning some valid votes of Chakwera and UTM president Saulos Chilima into null-and-void votes and favour first respondent President Peter Mutharika in the disputed presidential results of the May 21 polls.
Chilima and Chakwera – first and second petitioners respectively – are challenging the presidential election results in court, seeking nullification of the results and an order for -re-run.
Bendulo, who worked as an IT analyst for MCP during the May elections, used Sankhani Polling Centre, in Mchinji District, as an example of the alleged rigging to subvert democracy.
“The polling station of Sankhani in Mchinji West had 815 registered voters and that, according to the procedure the station, was supposed to have two streams. Looking at page 419, which is a Form 66C that the second respondent (Mec) attached in their system, looking at the candidate scores or candidate votes, it shows that Dr Lazarus Chakwera got 173 votes on Stream One and 178 votes on Stream Two and a total summation of that station, according to this tally sheet, for Dr Chakwera was 351.
“Dr Saulos Chilima got 51 in Stream One and 32 in Stream Two and a total summation of 83 votes,” he said.
The witness said the form further shows that Peter Mutharika got 52 votes in Stream One and 34 votes in Stream Two, adding up to 86 votes.
Bendulo – a self-style computer expert – claimed that from the total summation of 524 votes cast at the centre, 175 votes were removed and the votes allegedly stolen from Chakwera and Chilima were transferred to null and void votes, which, in reality, should have been only two and that it was paradoxical Mutharika’s 86 votes were not tampered with, as captured from the polling.
According to Bendulo’s presentation, the MEC system at the tally centre showed 699 as the total number of votes cast and from that figure, 524 were null and void ballot papers, thereby translating to only 175 total valid votes that the seven presidential candidates shared at the centre.
He told the five-judge panel of the High Court sitting as a Constitutional Court: : “This was not a mere error, but rigging because the officers of the second respondent (MEC) did not stop at just entering wrong data, but they also adjusted the figures so that they should match with the data they had wrongly entered.”
Bendulo was presenting his evidence during re-examination by Chakwera’s lead lawyer Mordecai Msiska, and said there was no spoiled or cancelled ballot, according to Form 66C, adding that, on each stream, there was one null-and-void vote, making it two null-and-void papers.
“According to this Form 66C, the number of cast ballot papers which were found in the box was totalling to 526 which was demarcated into 277 for Stream One and the ballot box for Stream Two they had 249 votes,” he said.
According to Bendulo, entering the results into the Mec electronic system at the Constituency Tally Centre demanded the first ICT officer logs into the system and capture the results exactly and every other component of the tally sheet the way it was and scan the Form 66C.
He added that, once the first IT officer completed the capturing, he or she was supposed to log out and a second IT officer was supposed to take the same tally sheet and enter the results as they appeared on Form 66C.
He said the system had the intelligence that if the figures entered by the first and second ICT officers matched, it was capturing that as a result and there where the two officers entered different figures, the system was prompting them to start again until the results were matching.
“If the second ICT officer was satisfied and the system has successfully captured, the ICT officer would print out a form, that is the digital Form 66C, and would log out and would give the printed copy to an auditor at that polling station, so that they could verify what had been entered into the system against the handwritten tally sheet from the presiding officer.
“Once the auditor is satisfied that the figures and everything was the same, he would log out and one of the ICT officers would log in again and command transmission of the results to the National Tally Centre. It meant the documents had been seen by people, four times,” Bendulo said.
He said it was astonishing to note that the officials entered in their system that Chakwera got 83 votes instead of 351.
“All these four people entered it like that. And the results for Dr Saulos Chilima, for both Stream One and Stream Two had been reduced from 83 to one. But if you go to page 419 and look at the results for Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, it was totalling to 86 for both Stream One and Stream Two. And if you go to page 420, you would see that in the system the results for Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika were entered exactly the way they were entered on Form 66 on page 419.
“For me to say that this is not a mere error but this is rigging, it is because the officers of the second respondent did not just stop at entering wrong data but they also adjusted figures so that they could match with the data they wrongly entered. If you see on page 419, the total valid of votes cast, if you do the summation of all the seven candidates was 524.
“But if you see on the dashboard on page 420, you will see that the number of total valid votes was reduced to 175 and the votes that were taken from both Dr Lazarus Chakwera and Dr Saulos Chilima were then transferred to null-and-void votes. Now, on the null-and-void votes, we are having 524 votes,” he said.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
A Nabanda nanu m’dziko muno sangasankhe ma commissioners ena kuti ayendetse?
Bendulo has done his part and brought out what he witnessed. I wish there was someone from MECs side to rebut Bendulo’s presentation in court regarding the goings on at this Sankhani Poling Centre.
These are mere allegations and they need to be supported with actual physical counting to verify. Anybody can cook up any figure in favour of their candidate and Bedndulo is no exception. To claim that he is an IT expert is to demin the education system in Malawi. IT is a specialised field and not jsut typing and Bendula can not claim to be an expert and such stupidity can be praised by people like Chakwera who know nothing but Bible verse. Another crook is Daud Suleman. In 2014 he lied to Chakwera that he had won and this time around he has the same tricks and wants to con Mia. mia should be careful because the crook Chilima is becoming too close to Chakwera and obviously in case of a rerun the two might be on the same ticket and mia will be left in the cold.
demin mpakana
Do not discredit him. You are an it expert by the book and he is a practical expert by practical means. In fact Kaphale did not dispute the findings from Bendula.
Amalawi tiyeni tizindikile apa kuti kuziunjikila macertificate pamaphunziro zilibe ntchito Koma experience pantchito yako ija very important. Bendulo has bofforted my heart!
Majaji apa za re’ run apa mayazi chikandalanga sichao Agogo.
Akanhopereka mwakachetechete kuti asaonongetse anthu.
I hope this case will go according to what witness and evidence says. I think the will be no mistake from judges, ’cause if the do mistake on this case things will be worth than now.
The guy is such a genius in INformation and Technology. What is Mbeta saying now?
Money spoke Mr. Test. Millions of taxpayers money was spent on polling staff, monitors and even roughnecks to perfect the rigging. Be practical. DPP functionaries and cadets were terror and whatever they did and said usually went unchallenged. So, don’t be naive by saying the opposition failed to act to stop MEC rigging.
Hon Anthony Bendulo,Minister of Information & Technology-Long Live!!!!!!
Kunena chilungamo chisankho sichinayende bwino ma judges amenewa akazangopeleka pass kwa agogo wa dziko lidzayipa
Waisting time.MCP tally center! What can you expect from It? School is very important.A lot of correction /tipex null and void inluding Chakwera’s home happened in nyau areas.That is not an excuse.Umbuli ukupweteketsani.That so called IT man is going to milk you.
I don’t agree with a “re-run.” The case is very clear, the winner is very well known, just announce the winner, period. If it is re-run, who is going to preside? This electoral commission is untrustworthy …
Malawi Reporters! Compelling evidence meaning one polling station? are you trying to influence the Judgement or what?
when you add up the Total its also different. Unfortunately many Malawians of MCP and UTM have been talking about this Computer Expert Bendulo and everything he says they believe its true. Unfortunately for you Mchinji is not Malawi and there is more to come than being cheated by unqualified person who poses big
May be you didn’t take Bendulo rightly, he said this is just one example of the many polling centers that the MEC had messed up the figures for Dr Chakwera and Chilima and this center represents many irregularities of such kind across the country which really means that APM did not win in these elections.
he needed to bring up evidence from the other places.
Sounders, what are you afraid of?if we can remove just one letter on your name, is your name going to sound the same? Man, mwaba zambiritu inu. That center you are talking about, is it not one of the centers where people got up early morning to exercise their own right to choose the person they want to lead them? Iwe ndi wansanje ngati fiti, ndipo ndiwe fiti in fact. Stupid!
Chief, this is a constitutional court matter in which the petitioners have asked the courts for a rerun not not declare a different person as winner. The issue as at hand is that one just have to prove that there were irregularities, which Bendulo has done given one. The courts will not look at the extent of the malpractice. It’s that simple
If they had pleased to the courts to declare Chakwera winner, then needed to prove vote by vote like he has done but they should have named all centers and the total votes stolen
They just have to prove kuti panabedwa. Nkhuku or ng’ombe konse ndikuba
The issue as justice Kamanga said is to prove that the irregularities had an effect on the outcome.
Sounders, am not sure if your brain is functioning properly. Useless
Absolutely. Let us not lie to each other. If MCP had evidence from other stations it would have been brought, not just 300 . Moreover in court you do not bring ” examples of evidence “. You bring all your evidence.
I will comment after the judges passed their judgement right now I’mjust following the case
Whatever the outcome of this case will be, Bendulo has really exposed MEC and DPP. I don’t know what the five judges will say, but there is evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the election were rigged
MCP ndi abodza
First case in court was recount
They changed but told their supporters outside the court kuti
Pali ma technicalities amene ali ku chitika mu court
Now bendulo is saying recount
Zabodza desperate people kufuna kukaba
Ndikukhulupilira wamvetsa mmene walongosolera form 66c mpaka kumapeto. Even mwana wa standard 5 atha kumvetsa bwino bwino. Apa akulu pali chinyengo.
Can we call it Kuba kapena kutenga zomwe Anabeledwa? Bwanji mitu yajama eti?
It’s good that these revelations have come. Now we find ourselves in a serious challenge of MEC’s credibility. While a rerun is certain, we need to bring sanity at MEC
Cadet what are you saying now? ” Compelling evidence” Kaphale ndi nzake mbeta kukamwa yasa…mukunya,paja chilima told you that ndinu ana simungabele mukabela mugwidwa si zimenezi? nkhanila nkhupulika kunowa…Bendulo wamwana balikunozga iwe..
Are you talking about 524,000, 52,400, 5,240 or a measly 524 votes. Simungapange ulesi akuluakulu ngati inu kumatokota za 524 votes? Kusowa chochita eti? I expected to hear a summation of all such votes to see if they come anywhere near to over 150,000 votes tinamgwetsa nayo nbusa wanuyo.
Ma frnd the thing here is not about missing votes. The issue here is about rigging and and mishandling of elections by your so called MEC. Amwene nsomba imodzi ikawola nde kuti zonse ndi manyi. If a clear picture is showing that at Mchinji there was za chinyengo, then what about ma districts ena????. MEC zavuta
Can you establish a trend from one station? May be your IT expert can.
OK let us give it the benefit of doubt to conclude from this single station that all the national null and void votes showing on MEC website as 74,719 were for Chakwera. Add to his tally of 1,781,740 the new total is 1,856,459 against APM’s 1,940,709. Mukugwa nayobetu.
i agree with you. could have summated all the places purported to have experienced that
There is no compelling evidence at all. Sankhani School has 2 null and void votes. The problem of using people without proper qualifications.
Dikilani Daud suleman muzakozedwe bwino agalu inu…mwayesa dziko la mbwiyanu eti? if its not compelling evidence why didnt your fellow cadet object in court what Bendulo was showing? your days are numbered just prepare for the outcome…if you did not rig then why were you trying to block the case from continuing based on technicalities?
Thos election definitely had irregularities And it seems it was also an issue of complacency at all levels. Didn’t MCP and TUM monitors see this at the national tally centre?. As much as I agree that MEC had issues, going forward if Malawians are going to be given the truth, I believe all political parties failed Malawians here. Failing to sign, failing to report etc. It is becoming increasingly obvious that all stake holders failed to meet their part of the deal.
MCP and UTM saw this happening at the national tally center and immediately reported. Remember the injunction sought by MCP restraining MEC from releasing the results.
What about on the ground. Not just the national tally centres. What were our monitors doing. What were the independents doing. What were co.service organisations doing.
That is why we are at courts
KEEP YOUR FIGURE SAFE. RE RUN IS NEAR . SUNGA CHALA RE RUN ILIPO
Wina alrira
This is just the begging there is more compelling evidence to come…..and even the president has been briefed about it…
Are you not surprised why after all these months APM has now started talking about dialogue?
Why talk about dialogue now when all along the old man has been so arrogant that he won the elections simple and square?……
Big up
Those who read the Times Group Story ‘ How Elections were Tippexed ‘ are not surprised by this …People started to Notice Tippex Boxes 3 to 2 days before the Elections on Desks of MEC IT officers and Officials…This was their Plan to subvert the Will of People.If it were in Western Countries the Whole MEC Commission should have stepped down by Now…On the Day the Rigged Elections were announced I bumped into some excited Young Men in MEC tops at ShopRite …4 of them with bottles of beer …Tamukhaulitsa Chakwera Anakatichotsatu….Was puzzled on how they Khaulitsadi Chakwera…Now I can connect the dots ….
Savita kumpanda Basi, rerun in the making.
We await wild comments from blue eyed cadets if this is not rigging
the narrative is quite confusing as it does not clearly report what didnt match. It is not clear whether form 66c being referenced is a hard copy or a digital one. Further, 351 + 83 + 86 isnt 524!
even after adding the 2 null and void votes
Kuputsa udapita schoy yake iti iwe mwana mlomwe ,okhetsera ma sum
you can add up the figures without hurling insults
It does provide hope for a ‘re run. However just being objective, questions arise. If indeed MCP had this overwhelming evidence. Why does it involve one station and less than 300 votes. Surely if they had more, they would have definitely brought it. However that said it does provide a good example of how it was possibly done. I believe if there was enough time something can be uncovered. Anyhow last I looked at my rental bill it was neither addressed to the DPP, MCP or UTM. Whatever the courts say is okay let me pay this bill.
What do they call someone who steals one chicken out of millions of chickens
Wakuba (Thief) kkkkkkkk
In a court of law it has to be beyond reasonable doubt. If you ask me honestly it is not as easy to get a thief arrested by the court. This might even just be circumstantial evidence depends on what MECs IT team says. Just saying.
not that what has been brought up adds up but surely if they had more they would have and should have brought it up! its that simple
Mlandu uwu umafunika ma certified fraud examiner (CFE), certified information systems auditors (CISA), cyber security analyst (CSA) alowelerepo. The real experts could have told chakwera not to rush to court because the data analysis is inconclusive there is need for verification of votes. But Mcp being mcp akatenga bendulo the self styled expert saying based on sankhani data, rerun itheka.
So why did you change your petition from rerun to recount? Because we could have finished recounting by now and established how many votes were affected like at sankhani centre? Those were only 522 votes and mcp lost by 159,000. Its not too late to recount. Kusutsa galu nkukumba. Ine wanu Bendulo CISA, MSC, CFE
This is too complicated. Not even jeni answer can comprehend this. Maybe his last born can!
Nothing more or less to u all 5 judges, what we need is re-run and Jane Ansah must go to jail . She thought she is clever with her dull ICT hired to manipulate the will of people.
There is nothing to stop re-run , change is coming indeed. All those involved in manipulating or rigging our election must be arrested and taken to court.
Money exchanged hands corruptly which is a crime so arrest these evil MEC ICT officers with their Madando 147 .
We need a clean president, voted by the will of people Wether from South, Center, North or East we don’t mind but must be the will of people to rule not neither Tippex nor Madando 147 to dictate on people of Malawi.
Let’s vote again full stop then peace shall prevail in our beloved motherland.
This a non starter kkkk.Koma IT Specialist amaneyu angagwetse Boma kkkk .In Mchinji there is no way votes can be stolen from Chakwera these are mere loopholes kkk.I wish this could have been true for I am tired of DPP aka Dirty People’s Party.Chipani chopanda mdalitso waa Tcheya .That why it is facing so many challenges kkkk.Anthu saakuchifuna chipani ichi kkkk.UDF was much better .
Komano tikati tiiyang’anitsitse MCP e heee ndinyooo.Tidzasimba lowawa atati mwayi wawagwera kkkk.Tidikire zakukhoti kkkkk
Ndili ndimanha komammmmaaaaa
Bendulo ndi katundu apapa olo a mbeta akuti ndiosaphunzila akunama kwambiri osaphunzila ndi iyeyo mbetayo , nanga mmene walongosolela Bendulo tifunaso umboni wina? ma judge apapa nkhani yatha tiyeni tivoteso apo ayi mpaseni wowinayo chifukwa tonse tadziwa amene anawina