Shock as Justice Mbendera no more: Malawi polls chair dies after collapse at meeting

Malawi Electoral Commission Chairperson Justice Maxon Mbendera collapsed during a meeting in Lilongwe on Thursday and was pronounced dead hours later.

Mbendera, was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation by first aiders and taken to the City Centre clinic,  but he died while doctors attempted to save his life.

“His heart had almost stopped by the time he reached hospital,” said a hospital source.

Judiciary spokesman Mlenga Mvula and MEC spokesman Sangwani Mwafulirwa both confirmed the sudden death of the Supreme Court justice.

“We are in grief,” Mvula said.

While Mwafulirwa said: “It’s shocking death.”

Many people will remember Mbendera as a man who broke down in tears as he presided over the announcement of presidential results in 2014.

He confessed that he had an emotional attack after realising that he was about to make a declaration that would spark wild celebrations for the winning party when one family elsewhere was mourning.

Mbendera was referring to the man who died in Mangochi during electoral protests earlier in the day.

“I was there making a statement on the elections and there was a family in Mangochi. The death in Mangochi was unnecessary. The party they were protesting for, United Democratic Front (UDF), was trailing fourth, so what was the protest all about?” he asked.

Mbendera said he was afraid that the violence in Mangochi would escalate nationally, saying: “I feared nationwide bloodshed.”

However, many claimed he wept because he realised he made announcement that President Peter Mutharika won the elections which were controversial and fraudulent.

Mbendera indeed wept and that is history, now the nation will shed tears and mourn the learn legal brains and a gentleman of high repute.