The Constitutional Court says it plans to conclude hearing of the presidential elections case by 6 December.
One of the five judges hearing the case, Justice Healey Potani, said this in court at the end of Wednesday’s session.
He said when the case is adjourned on Friday this week, hearing will resume on 25 November, 2019 and will last for two weeks.
“Hopefully, the respondents’ cases would have been completed by then,” Potani said.
During that period, witnesses for the President Peter Mutharika and Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) will testify in court.
The first witness for Mutharika, Local Government Minister Dr Ben Phiri, is expected to start presenting his evidence in court today. The other witness for Mutharika is Mr. Bob Chimkango.
In the elections case, Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi Congress Party and Saulos Chilima of UTM are challenging the results of the May 21 elections in which MEC declared Mutharika as the winner.
On Wednesday in court, Mutharika’s lawyer Frank Mbeta cross-examined Daud Suleman, the sixth witness for Chakwera.
Mbeta questioned Suleman on, among others, his information technology qualifications and his claims that MEC deleted records in its Results Managements System.
Suleman was also re-examined by Chakwera’s lawyer Mordecai Mshisha and the process is expected to be completed today.
Re: PRESIDENTIAL CASE :
The Constitutional Court should finish up this case as scheduled on 5th December, 2019. We need to see peace in the country so as development to accelerate. It sounds awkward for the Opposition camp to challenge the Presidential Election after declaration was made by MEC Chairperson and the sworning in of the President was done by the Constitutional Court. It means the Opposition camp had no confidence in the Judiciary. This is unfortunate.
We must obey the ruling of the Court. After the final ruling of the case, I suggest that the HRDC leaders should be sued for jurisdiction since they invented evil through unlawful demos that brought violence in the country resulting into vandalism of government property as well as deaths of innocent people who would have been part of socioeconomic development in the country. They deserve punishment of serving life sentenced impronment with hard labour due to deaths of innocent people.
The Judiciary should be promoting peace and justice in the country.
We need Malawi to be a peaceful country for development to take place successfully and people should be working in peace and love and harmony without interference of any kind.
The unlawful demos disturbed peace of people in their works in order to produce goods and services for booming the economy but instead, they caused the economy to slow down or dwindle which has resultediresulted into high inflation, henceforth, prices of coodities have risen up.