By Draxon Maloya
Pro-government Civil Society Organizations (CSO) have intensified their calls for the nullification of the whole May 19, 2019 tripartite election results.
Addressing the media in Mzuzu on Sunday, the Civil Society on Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) says the High Court acknowledged the failure by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to manage the elections hence no need for anyone to benefit from the mess MEC created for the nation.
Speaking in an interview CSAT chairperson, Kinnear Mlowoka says his organization is in full support of Frank Kuyokwa and other 183 citizens who have moved the court calling for the nullification of all the results of the May 19,2019 election.
“The court made it clear that MEC failed to manage the elections properly hence creating a mess which some citizens feels no one should benefit from that, we fully support that and let us commend Kuyokwa and other 183 citizens calling for justice to prevai,
“We are very happy because it is the citizens themselves who have decided to move the court, and if there’s a nullification of the presidential election results then that means there is also no parliament so let the house of assembly and councils be dissolved now,” Mlowoka said.
Frank Kuyokwa and 183 others have taken Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to the High Court demanding all Members of Parliament elected during the May 2019 tripartite elections be deemed not to have been duly elected.
The application also demands that all seats of the legislators in the Malawi Parliament be declared vacant and that the fresh presidential elections ordered to be conducted by the High Court of Malawi sitting as a Constitutional Court be conducted concurrently with elections for the MPs.
The High Court application done on April 2 2020, says “MEC should be declared to have grossly managed the May 2019 tripartite elections such that any election results declared by MEC be deemed to have been null and void ab initio”.
The petitioners also ask the High Court “that the President of the Republic of Malawi having not assented to the Electoral Laws Amendment Bills, the current Constitutional laws relating to the conduct of elections require the defendant to administer presidential elections concurrently with Local Government elections and the elections to the National Assembly”.
The petition has been filed for the applicants by Kawelo Lawyers in the Lilongwe High Court as Civil Cause number 2 of 2020 before Justice Ruth Chinangwa citing in the matter of Sections 12 (1); 15 (2); 20 (1); 40; 41 (3); 46 (2) (a); 67; 80 and 147 (5) of the Republic of Malawi Constitution.
It has also cited in the matter of Order 19, Rule 13 and Order 19 rule 27 of the Courts (High Court) Civil Procedure) Rules 2017.
The Court orders that “all parties concerned attend the Judge in Open Court on the 27th day of April 2020 at 8:40 o’clock forenoon on hearing of the application by the Claimants for declaratory orders”.
Meanwhile, South African lawyers to represent MEC in the case which commences on 27th April jetted into the country through Kamuzu International Airport on Sunday afternoon on a chattered plane which also raises eyebrows considering that the electoral body complained to the nation that it has no money.