Days after being awarded K7 billion, lawyers for President Lazarus Chakwera and Vice President Saulos Chilima have also been awarded K323 million in legal fees.
Senior Deputy Registrar of the High Court, Justus Kishindo, has awarded the legal fees in a determination made on Wednesday.
Former President Peter Mutharika and the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) have been ordered to pay the costs. MEC is expected to use taxpayers’ funds to pay the legal fees.
Lawyers for Chakwera will get K210 million while Chilima’s legal team will receive K113 million.
Chakwera and Chilima last year challenged the outcome of the 2019 presidential election in which Mutharika was declared winner.
As the elections case was at the Constitutional Court, Mutharika and MEC asked the Supreme Court of Appeal to dismiss the case on technicalities.
But the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal with costs which have now been determined to be K323 million.
On February 3, Chakwera and Chilima won the elections case and the court also ordered MEC to pay costs.
MEC was further ordered to pay cost when the commission and Mutharika unsuccessfully appealed against the Constitutional Court ruling.
The legal fees for Chakwera and Chilima’s lawyers for the elections case at the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court amounted to K7 billion.
