President Peter Mutharika says the court’s decisions on irregularities will make it difficult for Malawi to conduct credible elections in future.
Both the panel of five High Court Judges sitting as a Constitutional Court and the Seven-member panel of Supreme Court of Appeal Judges nullified the May 21, 2019 presidential election citing massive irregularities.
In his pre-recorded State of Nation Address (SONA) delivered on Friday in Parliament, Mutharika warned that the country has set a precedence as the next election will be more disputable.
“We will never, never have a valid and credible election in this country because there will always be some irregularities in any Election,” he said.
Mutharika argued that an election cannot be nullified because of using tippex to correct mistakes.
“From today, anyone can now rush to Court and demand nullification of an Election because an officer corrected an error even if that correction does not affect the result of the Election,” he said.
Mutharika asked Members of Parliament to make sober decisions when deliberating issues pertaining to the fresh election.
“I raise these matters because I have one plea to Parliament. For the sake of developing our country, for the sake of the people, let us use our authority to set right what is not right,” he said.
