Mutharika submits no basis for Malawi fresh elections: Suleman demonstrated ‘sheer ignorance’ of MEC results system

President Peter Mutharika’s  final submissions to the Constitutional Court in a case which the opposition are challenging his  re-election of in May, has maintained that the petitioners  – Saulos Chilima and Lazarus Chakwera  – have failed to prove in court that presidential results were manipulated; hence, asked the court not to nullify the results and no need for fresh elections.

Nyasa Times verified with Mutharika‘s lead lawyer Frank Mbeta the authenticity of the documents ahead of the oral submissions in court this week.

Mutharika is the first respondent in the case and was declared winner of the May 21 elections.

In the case, Chilima and Chakwera are seeking nullification of the presidential election results over alleged irregularities in the results management system and an order for a rerun.

But in the submissions, Mutharika through his legal team argue that there were no irregularities that would change the results of the presidential elections hence no basis of annulling the results.

The submissions also quashes Daud Suleman, an information technology (IT) expert hired by MCP during the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections, who made an elections data simulation in court to indicate that the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC)  results management system was compromised.

Mutharika submits that Suleman did not understand the MEC results management system (RMS) and that he does not have proper Microsoft qualification and was burnt on misleading the Constitution Court.

“My Lady my Lords, it would only be proper to understand Sulemani’s shifting of goal posts on the servers and indeed his failure to understand most of the RMS operations if one considers his qualifications,” reads part of the submission filed by Mutharika’s lead counsel Mbeta.

Mbeta has buttered the point on Suleman’s professional qualifications and expertise in IT.

“Suleman’s Microsoft qualifications only make sense to him as his purported Microsoft Certificate has no date including the period for which he was certified. Suleman failed to pull out his transcript for his Microsoft Certification on the Microsoft website just as any person holding Microsoft qualifications would do online.

“Instead, and indeed to the disbelief of many, Suleman went into his email address and only sowed the Court his Microsoft Student Identity Number. It does not require a genius to know that once a person register for a course with recognised institutions, a student identity number will be assigned to that person, we submit that such student identity number does not in any way prove a person’s attainment of the particular qualification,” reads the submission in part.

It says, besides in respect to his CISCO Network qualification, Suleman voluntarily exhibited a transcript.

“One wonders why the Microsoft transcript was never exhibited nor pulled from the Microsoft website if not for the more probable conclusion that such Microsoft certification did not exist.”

Mbeta argues that Suleman’s “extremely doubtful” Microsoft qualification and his own admission that he is not a certified IT Auditor (no CICA certification) “clearly makes his competence in Microsoft systems like the RMS extremely questionable and therefore he would not be competent to undertake exercises that would otherwise be done by properly certified IT Auditors.

He further submits that Suleman demonstrated “sheer ignorance” of the RMS processes thereby making “erroneous opinions” and conclusion.

“We therefore submit that all his opinions and conclusions be disregarded for being non-expert opinions and also coming from a person whose competence in Microsoft systems is highly doubtful,” reads the submissions.

The petitioners have their submissions  also been filed and focus on irregularities that occurred in the election and how MEC failed to remedy those irregularities as required by law, saying the electoral body failed in its constitutional obligations.

The lawyers for MEC have also filed final submissions in response to the submissions by the opposition challengers.

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