MEC exonerates Mbendera, official from MCP funding: Malawi Police probes
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has exonerated its chairperson Justice Maxon Mbendera and MEC liaison officer Ellen Kulujili from the bank deposit of K100 000 (about $238) into an opposition MCP bank account.
Nyasa Times posted a bank deposit slip which showed that Kalujiri had deposited the money into the party’s account 0070873005015 at NBS Bank.
Kalujiri was also identified in an earlier article as a secretary to the MEC chair but the electoral body spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said she works as liaison officer at MEC.
Mwafulirwa also said after discussing the matter with Kulujili, the commission established that she was framed by the people who made the deposit.
“She never did the deposit on behalf of the MEC chairman or on behalf of herself or anyone,” said Mwafulirwa in a statement to Nyasa Times.
MEC spokesman regretted the allegation linking its Chairperson, saying as the Supreme Court Judge, “who by nature of his profession presides over the delivery of justice”, his obsession and that of the Commission is to “deliver free, fair, credible and violent-free election for the people of Malawi.”
The electoral body assured that it will not favour any candidate or “play soft on any candidate or promote the political interest of any party.”
Mwafulirwa said MEC reported the matter of the deposit to Fiscal police as a case of forgery.
Fiscal Police said they are investigating the matter.
Kulujili claimed the person who made the deposit misspelt her name and forged the signature. The slip bears the name Kulujiri instead of Kulujili.
According to published reports, the MEC Liaison Officer went to NBS Bank at Chichiri Shoprite in Blantyre where the deposit was made to view a CCTV recording that could help her identify the depositor but the bank told her that CCTV cameras were not working on the day the deposit was made.
“It is very suspicious. How would the bank say the CCTV cameras were not working? How would the bank allow that to happen?” she wondered.
NBS spokesperson Timothy Ngwira is quoted saying: “We have to establish whether indeed the CCTV was not working that day. Which is very doubtful because the cameras are checked almost every day.”
Fiscal Police have opened a case of forgery and uttering false document against the individual who made the deposit.
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