High Court Judge Dingiswayo Madise has declined a request by the Attorney General’s office to dismiss a case in which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is asking for nullification of the last year’s fresh presidential election case.
Also, the DPP wants the court to order that the presidential status should remain before the order for a fresh poll.
According to Charles Mhango, lawyer for DPP, the Attorney General wanted the case to be dismissed right away arguing that DPP sued government without giving a 90 day notice.
However, Mhango said DPP responded by saying that Madise cannot hear the application since it’s a constitutional matter. He also asked the judge to refer the case to the Chief Justice.
Meanwhile, Judge Madise has referred the case to Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda for certification as a Constitutional matter.
This means that the Chief Justice will now have powers to constitute a Constitutional Court comprising of three or five judges who will hear the case.-
DPP asked the court to nullify the fresh presidential elections after High Court quashed the appointment of four DPP commissioners— Jean Mathanga, Linda Kunje, Steven Duwa and Arthur Nanthuru— on grounds that they were illegally appointed.
The former governing party wants the court to rule that there was no Mec from the date of appointment of the Seventh Cohort of the Electoral Commission on or about June 7 2020.
DPP also wants the court to rule that, under Section 75 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi, an inquorate and unconstitutional Electoral Commission does not have the constitutional powers or mandate to preside over and manage and or conduct any elections in Malawi.(Source MIJ Online)
Constitutional crisis. This usually happens when we have controrvesial guys leading and are protecting their appointments. Malawi is really a very interesting state when it comes to matters of politics and justice. Questionable verdicts, wanting to extend contracts. The very same judge who made the ruling against apm and said the decision had nothing to do with the polls is yet to make a decision on the creation of a constitution court. Very interesting indeed.