Elections Case Adjourned to 30 September

Elections case has been adjourned to 30 September after lawyer of Malawi Electoral Commission MEC finished cross examining second petitioner in elections case.

Judge Hilley Potani said when the case will resume it shall be tried for three weeks.

During the cross examination Thursday morning lawyer of MEC Kalekeni Kaphale ordered president of MCP Dr Lazarus Chakwera to stop providing vague answers.

Chakwera said some of the questions he was asked would be answered by his witnesses.

Lawyer of Chakwera objected a question on parallel vote tabulation saying “we did not indicate it in their sworn statement.”

Judge Ivy Kamanga interfered and told the witness to answer the question because it was relevant to the case.

Chakwera told the court that he had received written communication from Malawi Electoral Commission on MCP complaints.

Prior to the cross examination the court approved making minor correction to Chakwera’s sworn statement as requested by his lawyer.

He accepted that no valid votes from polling centres to main tally centre were altered.

Kaphale also asked Chakwera whether irregularity in few centres can represent the entire election.

In his response the MCP leader said “if one law is violated it means all have been breached.”

This prompted Kaphale to ask Chakwera to answer the questions as an educated person

He said 1.4 million people in 78 constituencies were affected by the irregularities.

Kaphale then asked Chakwera on a press conference he held during the elections but the court barred him from cross examining on that.