MANGOCHI-(MaraviPost)-The High Court sitting in Blantyre has on Monday adjourned to Friday, August 9, the elections dispute case in which the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Parliamentary Candidate for Mangochi Monkeybay in the May 21 TPE elections, is against the results that the elections body, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) had announced in favour of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Candidate, Ralph Jooma.
The presiding Judge, Justice Maclean Kamwambe adjourned the case in order to set aside the scheduled date for hearing of three petitions presented by legal counsel representing Ralph Jooma, who, according MEC is the legislator for the area and also by lawyer representing a renowned and prosperous Mangochi based businessman, Gerald Kazembe.
Lawyer for Jooma, Joseph Kamkwasi is asking the court to dismiss the case.
Kakwasi wants the case dismissed claiming, that the petitions by lawyers representing Gerald Kazembe has some irregularities.
In sharpening the court’s decision to adjourn, Lawyer for Kazembe, Patience Maliwa, urged the court to set aside a special date to deal with all submitted applications as a way to avoid further delays in the case.
Judge Kamwambe therefore said, he will hear all the three applications on August 9, 2019, before the commencement of the full trial.
The former Peoples Party (PP) member, Ralph Jooma, had prior to the May 21 elections dumped the party for DPP and soon after being declared winner by MEC, President Peter Mutharika whose presidential position is also under dispute and pending in the court of law, appointed Jooma as Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure in his cabinet.
In his determined fight, the complainant Gerald Kazembe, who strongly believes had won the elections, has vowed to battle it out in the court of law inorder to visualize justice prevailing in the face of questionable and suspicious moves which MEC played to finally come up with the name of the DPP Candidate Ralph Jooma amid irregularities of number of registered voters in some polling centres not tallying with the number of people who casted their ballot and most surprisingly, the issue of correction fluid known as tippex being applied on figures of results sheets.
