MEC commissioner Bishop Mary Nkosi quits

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Barely three days after the Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling in the appeal election case which also faulted the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) for being incompetent in managing the 2019 presidential election, commissioner Bishop Mary Nkosi has thrown the towel on Monday, Maravi Post understands.

According to Zodiak, Bishop Nkosi has left the commission and is on leave pending the end of her contract with the electoral body on June 5, 2020.

However, she has emphasized that her decision has nothing to do with calls for MEC commissioners to step down for mismanaging the 2019 presidential election.

But MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa told this reporter on Tuesday morning that the commission is not aware of that development.

“Talk to her. I haven’t heard about that,” said Mwafulirwa.

Few days ago, another commissioner Linda Kunje told media that she cannot resign because both Constitution Court and Supreme Court did not at any point demonstrate that the election was rigged.

Meanwhile, Public Affairs Committee (PAC) has said there is no need for President Peter Mutharika to fire the commissioners saying “the Supreme Court ruling is self-explanatory on what should be done. They just need to leave the MEC offices, they have been fired.

MEC Chairperson Jane Ansah is on record to have said that she would resign if the Supreme Court maintained the ConCourt ruling.

The Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the Constitution Court ruling of February 3, which annulled the 2019 presidential election over alleged irregularities.

MEC and President Peter Mutharika had appealed the decision of the five-judge panel of the High Court sitting as Constitutional Court.

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).