Buoyed by his win at the Concourt, Petulant Saulos Chilima is again taking another case to a friendly court. He has started legal proceedings against his boss Malawi President Peter Mutharika for refusing to fire embattled Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah and other commissioners whom the Constitution Court (ConCourt) declared incompetent to manage an election.
Saulos Chilima wants the friendly Malawi judiciary to stop MEC Commissioners from discharging their duties indirectly stopping preparations for the fresh presidential election scheduled for 2nd July of this year as directed by the same Courts earlier this year.
In his filing Saulos Chilima is also suing Malawi president Arthur Peter Mutharika for not firing the MEC Commissioners despite the absence of any court order in the Concourt directed to the president to fire the commissioners.
Dean of faculty of law at Chancellor college Sundu Madise is on record to have said President Mutharika acted within the law and wondered why the embattled Chilima has decided to take the matter to court.
Another legal expert who did not want to be named said Chilima just wants to protect his position as a State Vice President.
However, observers see Chilima’s move as a way to consolidating his position as vice president and buy more time to strategize on leading the MCP UTM alliance, an alliance that Bakili Muluzi sees as flawed and will break up soon.
In this desperate move to protect his position as state Vice President, Saulos Chilima appears to be working against the principals behind the MCP – UTM alliance and has applied for a court injunction to stop the impending fresh election.
People that know Saulos Chilima says he wants to buy time so that he gets enough support to lead the MCP – UTM alliance and do plenty of ground work to implement his agenda and convince MCP and UTM followers that he is the real leader for the Alliance.
Others suspect Saulos Chilima thinks by getting the injunction there will be no fresh election, he will then remain state Veep and this will give him more time to weigh different options.
