Removing Chichewa, lack of evidence, Chilima on tight rope: Day 2 Malawi presidential elections case
Dr. Saulosi Klaus Chilima political capital has been built on open, transparent and direct participation of all Malawians with proclamation that “tsogolo lowala, lafika”. However, second the day of the historic court case to nullify presidential results in the May 21 Tripartite Elections, Chilima shocked every Malawian as his legal team wanted Chichewa translation out of the trial.
Hold on, why would Chilima and his legal team (They wouldn’t apply to court without his blessings) want the majority of Malawians not to follow the case simply because the Chichewa will delay the case- the truth as the eloquent SKC did not bring the requisite evidence to court.
The application against Chichewa will remain the main debate for the day, and political interpretation could cost his capital of openness. Chilima needs to tread carefully, he cannot choreograph the court case, he has no control and legally after his admissions to all of the Attorney General (AG) claims, his team as a tall order to portray the election as fraudulent or irregular. The election is conducted at the polling centre, where it seems none of the UTM monitors encountered the challenges Chilima alleges hindered the whole election.
As the main petitioner, he sets the tone of the case. Bring evidence, centre ABC had results manipulated, irregular process and indeed tippexed results. He owes that to Malawians when he charged, he has “overwhelming evidence” and that he wanted his day in court.
His petition moved the court that the elections were not run in line with laws and regulations. Interestingly going through the Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale’s line of questions and Chilima answers, day two of the trial one can confirm that the UTM has no case in terms of electoral process, the infamous tippex and use of wrong sheets.
In Chilima’s own answer on the second day, tippex did not alter the results, he also agreed what mattered are the figures being acceptable to all monitors and more critically, he said he did not have problems with the whole election, but some other things.
He has wantonly failed to set the tone. I was praying for a stronger come back on Friday, but it was his lawyer Marshal Chilenga who was becoming desperate, objecting to many things, asking Kaphale to hurry up or not ask any questions again. The desperation shows Chilima on the stand is damaging their case, his petition which he read though was full of conjecture and not reality.
Elections again start from the polling. Did people vote accordingly? Was the voted counted objectively? Were the results agreed by all the parties or not? If there were problems, have any of the parties challenged the results or not? If they have the evidence, wrong tally sheets or altered results have these been presented as evidence?
If these basics are not clear in Chilima’s petition, his answers and if his petition remains a mound of allegations without substantive evidence, name of a single centre where results were tampered with or changed against him. The case means has no basis.
If the case has no basis as Chilima keeps now referring to “other affidavits” now his counsel Khumbo Soko says are 40, hopefully from monitors or people from the polling centres, if is very difficult to understand why he allowed Malawi to burn when he knew he had nothing.
As someone wrote somewhere, they should have waited for the court case to call for Jane Ansah’s head, I am sure the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, which ironically has suspended the demonstrations because of the case they all along claimed were not related, would issue an apology to Malawians for lying to them.
I hope SKC will manage to overturn the first two days by bring centres where rigging, intimidation and alteration took place. He agreed to Kaphale’s assertions through and through, that monitors would know better, I cannot figure out why they would miss such basic information which is the foundation of the whole elections, especially with the brilliant legal team they have.
Of course, the court was right, let Chichewa broken or not be continued. Let Malawians who have been told their will was not respected be shown the evidence, let the truth flow like river Jordan.
Second day again went to the Attorney General again. I am now wondering why they even included President Peter Mutharika in their petition. I would ordinarily withdraw him if that petition was based on what has been presented. Mutharika’s lawyer’s would be very brutal, it could finish Chilima’s career.
Justice anakonza!
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MCP TIYENI TIZUKE KU TULO CHILIMA AKHOZA KUTIMBWITITSA MULANDU AMAONEKA NGATI OCHENJERA KOMA NDI ZII
The voters in rural Malawi don’t speak english. You want only those who didn’t vote, but doing demos to understand the court proceedings?
After all is said and done I think evidence from the Results Management System (RMS) – the software package that was used to collate and tally results from all centers in ‘real time’ by the MEC will also provide some clarity as to what may have happened. Looking at the affidavit and sworn statement from the IT expert for the MCP (whom I happen to know in a personal and business capacity when we worked together briefly in October last year in Blantyre), I think the MEC shot itself in the foot. Tippex aside, the results of the forensic audit… Read more »
chilima is brilliant amayankha mwanzeru
Ngati Chilima sadzapepesa kwa Peter ngati mwana olowerera,Sadzapeza mte ndere moyo wake onse.Peter anali ngati bambo wache.Ndipo kholo ngakhale likhale lochepa mwendo siungalionetsere chipongwe chimene wachita Chilima.Ndipo waphunzitsa Ana mwano,chipongwe,kunyoza,kuderera,kunyansidwa ndi achikulire.Moti waononga ponse ponse .Pano abusa,mabwana,atsogoleri amabungwe osiyana Ali m’mbvuto kunyozedwa ,osalabadilidwa ndi achinyamata.Chilima alape ndi kupepesa ngati amapempheradi.Apo bii Mulungu dadzamukhululukira.Waononga achinyamata
I didn’t know kuti Kaphale is this brutal. Eish kkkk he made Chilima look like a small boy
Yes, he is so merciless when it comes to cross examining in court and the process was intended to, at most, embarrass him which he did. Over the weekend the print media has even written articles on the cross examining. However, in Malawi cross examining is far behind to that in England where they also follow the English Legal System.
I don’t know why Chilima decided to make himself a laughing matter like this. He clearly knows, together with Chakwera, that they lost. How can you rush to court with sentiments only and no evidence. I congratulated him when he conceded defeat and thought he was mature but ha! I was very wrong. Now that the court have turned down your request to have chichewa translation scraped off, be assured that majority Malawians will continue hearing mbwelera
Some of the evidence can be found in the computer generated logs from the system the MEC used. Whether this is enough to sway the judges or not remains to be seen. But as a IT expert (like the guy who compiled the affidavit), the audit trail paints a different picture of the truth (or untruth). I am not sure whether the final result that was announced was from the system or other. If it was from the system (which by virtue of being used by the MEC meant it was trusted), then I don’t know what the outcome would… Read more »
eya cicewa kuti ose anavota aziva ndikudziwa cikucitika.
mwawauza nkuwatayatu
What Kaphale is telling Malawians is that if you have a fake K2000 bank note that has features of a genuine note then that bank note is not fake. Is this the Attorney General Malawians can trust? Does he want to legalise usage of fake bank notes or fertiliser coupons simply because they have features of a genuine note or signature of the governor of the reserve bank.
Poor you douchebag…. what’s the coordination with your silly comment…? That was just an example kape iwe mxiew
Dull people fail to understand what is being said. Kaphale never used an example. It was substantive. I don’t have to waste my time arguing with someone whose brain weighs less than a flea and is faulty or full of faulty logic. Replay what Kaphale asked and listen with your ears not with your defective heart.
Irrelevant
This article is full of misleading statements made by very biased author. And it’s too early to start feeding people false conclusions. Calm down, mpunga udya.