Malawi’s once-ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has called for the nullification of last year’s election saying it was presided by an electoral management body that was illegally constituted, a report says.
BBC reported on Friday that DPP had filed a lawsuit in court asking for the removal of President Lazarus Chakwera from office.
This came after the Malawi High Court declared in recent weeks that four commissioners of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) who presided over the elections, illegally held their positions.
Former president Peter Mutharika lost to Chakwera in the June 23, 2020 repeat elections after the court nullified the 2019 polls.
AFP reported in April that Chakwera had rescinded Malawi’s electoral commissioners on the basis that they had been declared incompetent by the Constitutional Court.
In a statement, the DPP said it “calls on the courts, when moved, to nullify the election of Dr Lazarus Chakwera and his Vice President, Dr Saulos Chilima”.
“He has ceased to be a legitimately elected president of the Republic of Malawi because the election that elected him into office was presided over by an unconstitutional body,” DPP said.
The DPP said by removing the commissioners from office, Chakwera had invalidated all decisions they had made in office – including certifying his victory.
“Democratic Progressive Party calls upon President Lazarus Chakwera to leave the Office of the President immediately. He has ceased to be a legitimately elected president of Malawi because the election that elected him into office was presided over by an unconstitutional body,” IOL quoted DPP as saying.
Although the high court ruled that the nullification of the appointments should not have a bearing on validity of the elections, the DPP maintained that elections presided over by commissioners declared to have been illegally elected could not be valid.
The party also wanted all parliamentarians and councillors elected in by-elections held within the past year nullified on the same grounds, BBC said.
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