BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—UTM leader Saulos Chilima, through his lawyer Chikosa Silungwe, on Monday asked the Lilongwe High Court to adjourn a case in which Chilima dragged to court President Peter Mutharika for failure to fire the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) commissioners as recommended by the parliament.
Silungwe told journalists that his client applied to have the case adjourned to a later date after the Supreme Court of Appeal delivers its ruling in an appeal case in which President Mutharika and MEC wants the highest court to overturn the February 3 landmark ruling which nullified the May 21 presidential poll.
“The matter was coming up with direction from the court but we have sought an adjournment. So the matter may be shaved until after the judgment of the Supreme Court. That adjournment has been granted.
“We will only need to go back once we have the judgment of the Supreme Court. The case has not been withdrawn, it has just been adjourned. The case is still live,” said Silungwe.
Delivering a ruling on February 3 this year, a panel of five judges, sitting as Constitutional Court, found the MEC commissioners incompetent in the way they managed the 2019 presidential poll.
The Public Appointment Committee of parliament also found the commissioners incompetent and made recommendations to the president to fire them.
But Mutharika rejected the parliamentary committee directive.
Apart from refusing to fire the MEC commissioners, Mutharika also turned down electoral reforms that aimed at running the forthcoming fresh presidential poll smoothly.
