On Friday, the High Court in Lilongwe sanctioned two factions of the opposition DPP for mediation talks over the fights surrounding the position of Leader of Opposition.
According to sources from the talks, both sides , appearing before Judge Kenyatta Kaunda agreed on two issues; to nullify the PAGE House decision of 26th June, 2022 that removed Kondwani Nankhumwa from the position, secondly to nullify the election of Dr George Chaponda to the position.
“Following the mediation session, both parties were ordered to sign a mediation settlement communique that will be presented to the court on Tuesday, 27th September, 2022”, disclosed our source.
However, according to our source, the mediation talks may collapse after the Chaponda faction is reluctant to sign the settlement because they are said not to be satisfied with the use of the word “nullification” of the PAGE House decision.
“Their lawyers have communicated that they want the word “nullification” to be replaced with “cancellation” so that it paves way to fresh election of the Leader of Opposition.
We verified with court officials and established that the mediation did not agree to hold fresh election since there is no vacancy on the position and the claimants felt that since the matter involves parliamentary procedures they would rather leave the statutes to be followed accordingly.
Another source that we spoke to, corroborated with our story stating that they wondered why spokesperson to former President Shadreck Namalomba rushed to issue a statement on the resolutions when he was not part of the case before waiting for the signing of the final settlement document where all details would be presented accordingly.
A lawyer who refused to be named, faulted Namalomba for his approach since his statement killed the whole spirit of mediation.
He argued such statement was supposed to come from both sides as a sign that they have both reached an agreement. He said Namalomba is a conflicted person because of his PAGE House position therefore any communication form him would sound biased.
