President Peter Mutharika has accepted the resignation of under-fire Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chairperson Justice Jane Ansah, Presidential Press Secretary Mgeme Kalirani has said.

In an exclusive interview with Malawi Broadcasting Corporation- MBC on Thursday night, Ansah announced that she had written the appointing authority (Mutharika) of her intention to resign from her position.

Ansah and her fellow commissioners were declared incompetent by a panel of High Court judges sitting in a Constitutional Court, Parliament and the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“The highest court has spoken, yes l have to step aside,” she said.

Earlier on Friday, a legal scholar said President Peter Mutharika was not mandated to reject Ansah’s resignation.

Garton Kamchedzera, professor of law at the Chancellor College said it would have been illegal if Mutharika were to refuse Ansah’s resignation, because that would mean forcing her to work against her will.

Following her announcement, there were different school of thoughts alluding to that Ansah was supposed to write the Judicial Service Commission which actually appoints the MEC chairperson and not to Mutharika who just endorses.

But Kamchedzera clarified that Ansah did well by writing Mutharika because the president is in essence, the appointing authority.

The MEC chairperson’s contract was supposed to end in October while MEC commissioner’s contracts ends in June this year.