UTM, MCP work on legal costs as MEC awaits bill

Legal teams for Dr. Saulos Chilima and Dr Lazarus Chakwera in the landmark presidential election case say they are still working on legal costs whose bill is to be footed by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).

Titus Mvalo, one of the lawyers for the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Chilima said they will be through with the calculation of the legal bill next week.

“We cannot finish calculating the bill within a short period of time because this case started way back in May, 2019,” said Mvalo.

He said the legal team had been working even on weekends.

Chikosa Silungwe, lead lawyer for the UTM president Chilima said the legal team has written the lawyers for MEC.

“We are yet to get their response,” said Chikosa.

He said if the two parties; the Chilima legal team and MEC legal team fail to agree on the costs, the issue will go back to the court for arbitration.

The Constitutional Court ordered MEC to pay the legal costs for both the Chakwera and Chilima legal teams whose bill, experts, will run into billions of the kwacha.