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.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
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 Law Commission. The SCA Judgement clearly states that there no one who won the presidential election, i.e, no presidential candidate achieved 50+1.
Probably the Judiciary was just watching helplessly as the Executive was playing dirty tricks until they got the chance to put things right
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?
It’s true to express his view in public rallies he is a leader so he should maintain that to be respected
Rubbish …..APM is entitled to his opinion but tell him he’s foolish and he can’t win this fight against the judiciary
The so called Malawi President is lamenting over failure to bribe the judges. We know he wanted to I fluence the courts through his partner in crime Thom Mpinganjira
Executive and parliament is comprised of politicians who think like chickens, so it’s most likely that the decisions they make will not go well with pipo who think in normal way unlike chickens
Let us forgive APM he is growing nuts and he is not in the same universe as the rest of right minded human beings the man is about to get into vegetative state
Bambo a mwana ku chigwiri Mr Mgeme iyiyi skmuikwanitsa mwaiyambayi mwacheza nayo nanu mwasanduka laywer ngati Maseye tsekulani law firm. Time is up.. Mukawelenga news ku Likoma
hahahahaha….koma zoona? Ine ndingatukwane munthu/anthu kenako nkumakana kuti sindinanyoze ndimangonena maganizo anga? Za kachasu-tu izi
President Mgeme tsopano .. Thinking we are all daft like DPP cadets….
Let’s vote UTMCP to end this nonsense
kukamwa eti. hedeeee ku chigwili ku Likuni a Dad a mwana . amace ayambe kunyadila a dad ndi a plesdent tisamwe madzi ife
Mukuti chani inu? vuto lake nyasa ilibe ma VN lol coz amaombola anthu osatha kulemba ngati inu
No sacred cows indeed. It’s not a crime to express a feeling or an opinion against a court judgement. APM is within his rights of ‘freedom of expression’ as enshrined in the constitution of Malawi.
Arthur Peter Mutharika, ( APM) is more interested in power than principle.
If the judgement was favouring him ( which of course it is what he hoped for, without knowing that ‘Chauta akuchotsa nansongole mmunda mwa tirigu’), he would have been all full of praises of the remarkable and exceptional work the judges has done.
Let us not forget the bribery attempts Mr. Mpinganjira made. All of this attests to the desperate measures APM has undertaken.
To God Almighty Be The Glory for His mercies and righteousness !
Chauta wachita chilungamo, satana wachita manyazi.
APM should know that ‘ tsoka likalimba, amayamba ndi galu wako yemwe kukuluma’.
By saying a travesty and ridiculous is that an opinion. This Nuisance Mgeme your time is up do not take Malawians in granted. This is the worst government ever. We are sorting you out shortly.
We deal with facts and evidence in the court of law not opinions. Ask Kaphale
Useless opinion and shameful. You can oppress Malawians by your opinions never. This is a failed government which does not respect the law.
The president should be the last person to be attacking the judiciary. His opponents have never done that before. They have been accepting court decisions. Why did he appeal in the first place? The president has been in the thick of corruption. Do you want to tell us that Thom Mpinganjira just woke up and decided to bribe the judges? There was an invisible hand in all this. Do you want to tell us that MEC just woke up to supply tippex to all centres? There was an invisible hand in it. It is all dpp scheme to rig elections. Do not forget there was a cheque from FDH into the account of the Chief Elections Officer? The amount was possibly K4 billion. What was it for? Did we get an audit report on how this was used? The president drinks a lot of wine and he forgets what he has authorized. JB said alcohol and age don’t go together. I can add that alcohol and leadership of the highest level do not go together. At the same time the international observers are not entirely present at the constituency tally centres. Were the courts wrong to say that the constituency tally centres were illegal? Please let the people freely and fairly choose their leader. When Kamuzu was defeated he left without any resistance and congratulated Bakili Muluzi. Izitu nzosiyirani. All offices have successors. It’s only kingdoms or ufumu that goes to families.
Some stupid Malawians think that judges are saints. We have seen people jailed for years when they did we’re not wrong. Recently a man who had already saved several years imprisonment with hard labou was released after it was found was wrongly imprisoned by the courts. We have witnessed judges Palm oiled just to twist nkhani. Stupid Malawian judges!!!
That is why you call yourself phwisa. You think like chiphwisi
It’s true what has been said but being a Leader Munthalika should have not said it, everyone looks at him since he has power. Anyway few days remaining for him to leave the office, he can say whatever he want to!
Equally as the Judiciary does not have access to political gatherings, the president also does not have access to courts where he can give a judgement. So there is no harm for him to express his opnion
The Acting President was represented in Court by many Lawyers if he had no confidence in his Lawyers he could have attended the Court similar to Chilima and Chakwera. He has NO RIGHT NOW TO COMPLAIN that he has exhausted his Appeal’s. He is just seeking sympathy and anarchy among his brainwashed followers for the loss.
Ngati dziko la Malawi linasokonekela zitsiru dzina ndi zimenezi. Ma judge a mikozo. Nzanu owuma mutu wina ndi uyo Richard Banda chief justice wa Kamuzu.Kaya justice yake inali iti? Anthu akuphedwa ndi kumafyedwa ndi mg’ona.Iye ati chief justice.Munyama wa ma judge wu anawusiya ndi Kamuzu.Anthu opepela kwambiri.Attacking judicially..judicially nso ndi chani? Ngati mumaziwa ntchito kasambala Ali kuti?
Mbuzi.
He is an obtuse idiot. I am just expressing my opinion.
Very stupid explanation. Judgement of a case is not an opinion but a VERDICT that must be respected by all. APM can keep his opinion to himself and should not try to influence others by standing on a podium and calling judges names. After all he is Citizen No.1 who swore to defend the constitution. His barking like a rabid dog is what earns him the DRUNKARD status.
Idiot never learns.(…or perhaps idiot is brain dead with no chance of recovery and is on artificial life support..)
The president is expressing his opinion. Our judges are indeed, corrupt and incompetent.
By not receiving bribe from mpinganjira right?
Maloto a chumba! But do you know, YOU, that tables turn round?
Mr Kalirani stop fooling Malawians ok.The President is not expressing his opinion but he attacking the whole judiciary because he thinks he is above the law with his corruption means.