The office of the registrar of the High Court and Supreme Court yesterday rejected to issue a summons for a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) case.
According to the court, allowing the commencement of such a case would be an abuse of court processes.
DPP made an application on the issue of summons against the Malawi Elections Commission (MEC) on its insistence on the use of national identity cards during the voter registration exercise for the forthcoming election in the country.
But in his ruling dated October 9 2024, High Court of Malawi assistant registrar Elijah Blackboard Daniels rejected the application describing it as a hopeless attempt full of errors aimed at testing the waters.
“She can sue on the issues she has raised. Her actions are a total abuse of our processes,” reads part of the statement.
The court further questioned the DPP if it is being denied its constitutional right to vote.
“Can she (DPP) even possess that right? Has she been denied any civil rights? Did she go to register as a voter somewhere where a zealous elections officer (credit be given to their work) or whosoever it may be, returned her on the premise that, she did not possess a national identity card? We do not have immediate answers.
We do not promise that we will. The claimant herself (DPP) has not supplied us with answers in the originating process.” as it reads.
Responding to the issue, DPP today, through the party’s secretary general, Peter Mukhitho, said they will correct the errors that the court highlighted in the ruling, and they will take another step to make sure their worries have been addressed.
According to Mukhitho, the party will now put individuals as plaintiffs based on legal advice that the party’s rights cannot be infringed since it does not have the authority to register and vote.
“So we requested that if we put individuals as plaintiffs it may carry more weight than how it was done, so the error has been rectified. We have refiled and we are looking forward to the full hearing of the case in court.
“We will not stop until we see things are right. We want every Malawian who is 18 years above to vote although they do not possess national ID and we will make sure that happens,” he said.
