Malawi: Court throws out opposition leader

  1. Posted on Monday 20 July 2009 - 13:21
    Sam Banda Junior
    Image of Sam Banda Junior
    Sam Banda Junior, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi
    The opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president John Tembo who recently challenged the presidential election results in court has lost the case. Tembo was among the seven presidential candidates in the country's May 19 elections which gave President Bingu Wa Mutharika a lead.
    Malawi: thousands vote
    A High Court on Friday dismissed the case as premature and a classic example of abuse of court process. High Court Judge Robert Chinangwa further said the MCP president who came second in the presidential elections rushed to court before he exhausted the whole process with the Electoral Commission.

    According to The Sunday Times, Chinangwa also faulted Tembo for failure to satisfy the constitutional requirement to lodge an electoral challenge within 48 hours after polling.

    The report further quoted Chinangwa as saying that the MCP president failed to include president Mutharika, who was second respondent in the petition, to defend himself from the claims. The judge said the president’s right to be heard was violated.

    Recently the clergy in the southern African country called upon the opposition leader to withdraw the case in the interest of national unity. Malawi’s Electoral body declared Mutharika the winner early on May 22 before his inauguration the same day.

    He accumulated over three million votes against Tembo’s two million. President Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also swept more seats in Parliament.

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