Malawi

Appeal case underway: APM’s lawyer says “there was no basis for nullification of May 21 election results”

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Constitutional Court Judges who nullified 2019 presidential election

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Senior  Counsel Samuel Tembenu, representing President Peter Mutharika who is the first appellant in the presidential election appeal case, has finished presenting his arguments on why they want the February 3 judgment by the Constitutional Court should be overturned.

In his arguments before a panel of seven judges, Tembenu said there was no legal basis to nullify the May 21 presidential election because the irregularities cited by the petitioners did not affect the final outcome of the poll.

He further argued that the Constitutional Court was wrong to issue consequential orders to Parliament to enact new laws ahead of the fresh presidential election because that role is for the executive arm of government.

Hearing of the appeal in the presidential election case started this morning with Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda, who is leading a panel of six other Supreme Court Judges, disclosing that each party will be allocated one hour to present their arguments.

Meanwhile, Tamando Chokotho who is representing Malawi Electoral Commission has taken the floor.

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).