Malawi opposition moves to nullify election results

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera

The opposition wants President Lazarus Chakwera either to give two electoral commissioners letters of appointment or nullify the results of the June 23, 2020, presidential elections. Picture: Malawi Government/Facebook

Published Feb 16, 2021

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RUSTENBURG - Malawi’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has called on the Malawi Congress Party-led government to nullify the June 2020 presidential election results for failing to issue letters of appointment to two electoral commissioners.

In a statement published on the party’s social media account dated February 15, spokesperson Brown Mpinganjira said the party was disappointed about the way the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and the government had handled the appointment of commissioners Dr Jean Mathanga and Linda Kunje.

"The commissioners were reappointed MEC commissioners on June 7, 2020, and were sworn in three days later. However, up until now the government has not given them their letters of appointment and yet they have continued to work and have been an integral part of the administration of the June 23, 2020, presidential election as well as several by-elections which have been conducted since," he said.

He said if the government felt the two commissioners were performing their job illegally, then all elections of which the commissioners had been part should be nullified – starting with the presidential election which declared Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party the new president.

According to media reports, Chakwera stated in November last year that he would not issue them with letters of appointment because they had been found to be "incompetent" by the public appointments committee of parliament and the supreme court of appeal.

In August last year, Attorney General Chikosa Silungwe gave legal opinion to the office of the president and cabinet to formally write appointment letters for the two commissioners.

Mathanga and Kunje were appointed by former president and DPP leader Peter Mutharika.

Mutharika appointed Chifundo Kachale as new chairperson of the MEC on June 8, 2020. He also appointed other electoral commissioners and reappointed Kunje and Mathanga as electoral commissioners.

The two were part of the commission that was deemed incompetent by the court that nullified the 2019 elections.

ANA

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