Mutharika not attacking judges, ‘only expressing his opinion’- State House
Presidential spokesperson Mgeme Kalilani has rejected assertions that President Peter Mutharika is attacking the judiciary , saying he is only expressing his right of opinion to the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal determination upholding the nullification of the May 21 2019 presidential election.
Kalilani said there is no arm of government which is sacred and immune from scrutiny, including the Judiciary.
He said just like judges express their opinions through judgements, the President, as a politician, uses public engagements to express his views.
“Let’s not confuse a fair opinion from an attack. The President did not attack the Judiciary, he merely expressed his opinion on their performance. And he is perfectly entitled to that,” said Kalilani.
Speaking during the Talk to the President Programme on State-run Malawi Broadcasting Station last Friday and during whistle-stop rallies in Thyolo on Monday, the President maintained that the judgements of the five judges of the High Court sitting as the Constitutional Court and the seven appeal judges who upheld the same were a travesty of justice and ridiculous.
Mutharika also accused the judges of practising “regime change” activities.
“The court did not follow the evidence and the law, and that to me it was a judicial coup de tat. That’s what it was that the court simply decided that they want to get rid of the government. It’s so obvious, it’s very clear,” said Mutharika.
In a published article on Nyasa Times, a columnist argued that of the three arms of government -The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary – only the Executive and the Legislature are attacked every day by everyone including quacks in law and drunks in civil society.
Of the three, it is the Judiciary that seems to have obtained the rights from wherever to demonize and lord over the other two at will. It rarely takes criticism kindly.
“No one is allowed to hold an opinion that is different from what judges think. Or you are accused of interfering with or disrespecting the Judiciary and conspiring to defeat the ends of democracy and justice.Nothing can be more nonsensical!
“The Judiciary is by no means naturally free from any criticism or different opinion. It, too, runs on taxpayers money and it is in the firing line by anyone,” reads the article in part.
However, Malawi Law Society has said Mutharika—a professor of international law— should not express disquiet against the Judiciary through political podiums given that the Judiciary itself has no access to the political podium and political facilities to respond to the allegations thereby publicly expressed by the State President.
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The election case hearing was live on radios and could see how judges deliberately chose which side of judgement they want to take. I have a strong conviction on judiciary coup d’etat.APM was robbed of his victory in court.
Ma regime change judges manyazi mulibe? Ma judgement a 50+1 anuwo mukungodzipakapakanso nawo . Parliament yakukanirani kawiri konse koma Inu kakakaka ndi 50+1. Basi tingopanga referendum.
Mgeme, it is wrong to assert that Judges express their opinions through Judgements. Judgements can not and will never be opinions. Judgements are well researched findings and usually based on previous court rulings. Where they are novel, they tend to rely on legal reasons e.g. in the 50+1, it relied on the spirit and findings of the Special Law Commission which recommended that Malawi should adopt the 50+1 system and discard the first past the post. This Special Law Commission recommendation was frustrated by the president and his close aids. The SCA merely enforce what was recommended by the Special… Read more »
Yours is a very poor argument. Judges use opinion big time. It can be their opinion or other people’s opinion. By quoting other judgements it means they are using other people’s opinion. Stupid bunch of judges. Majaji akumalawi ndiye mbola zenizeni.
Ngeme, kuno ndi kunjatu, kuyanja lichelo..
He has been insulting the judges whose job is to judge so it will be up to judges themselves to judge him if it is just an opinion or an insult and when time comes sentence him accordingly.
Its high time Malawi arrests corrupt leaders and his cronnies…we are tired of these guys destroying this country. Ndipo ma judge awa a pitala awa osazawamvera chisoni tikawatengera ku court akatuluka m’boma. We wont feel sorry for an old man rotting in jail.. We need to set examples now on how leaders should behave.
Our problem is Mutharika’s toxic ignorance of the law and lack of respect of the same which makes me question if he has ever been in a law class!!!???? And can any one-time-law-student of dumb Mutharika come to the rescue of his/her former ‘teacher’?????!!!!!!
Thank God 🙌🙌🙌 that Arthur Peter Mutharika lost all the cases he wanted to rule is Malawians through the back door. My question is what would be the professor’s opinion if the 12 judges or 7 judges the high court of appeal and the 5 judges supreme court of appeal ruled out in favour of him? Eish the way I know this man how he sprits out his speeches kkkkkkk yeah he’s only saying all this coz wayaluka kudzilimbitsa mtima. Malawian has suffered enough coz of DPP God is about to rescue the nation.
What opinion does he have on te acquitall of Chaponda?
Mutharika is right. Our judges are corrupt and incompetent. We need a proper clear out of these judges.
They’re corrupt because they refused the bribe from Mpinganjira and DPP? How about the K145million your president received as a bribe?