Lawyers from both sides in the Malawi election case will Friday meet the five-judge panel of the constitutional court in Lilongwe.
The meeting called a scheduling conference will look into the case before trial starts.
Malawi Congress Party President Lazarus Chakwera and UTM leader Saulos Chilima are contesting results of the May 21 presidential election and in their application have named President Peter Mutharika and the Malawi Electoral Commission as respondents.
Issues the parties will look at include: whether they need to amend any of their supporting documents, whether they want to seek further and better particulars of any of either parties’ case, whether there are matters in respect of the issues between the parties that they perceive to be agreed facts and to identify any party that should be added or removed from the case.
Each party will also tell the court whether there are any documents relevant to the case which one party believes are in custody of the other, indicate whether they want to ask questions to the other side whose answers will speed up the effective and just disposal of the case, state whether they want to cross-examine any of the deponents of the other party on oath, and whether they want to make any preliminary applications before the case starts.
MCP and UTM filed separate applications against the outcome of the May 21 elections in which the Malawi Electoral Commission declared Mutharika winner.
However, the high court joined the cases and ordered that the consolidated case should be heard as a constitutional matter.
