DPP’s Kachikho urges people to stay calm as Malawi awaits court ruling

Governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) parliamentarian for Phalombe North Anna Kachikho has asked people to stay calm as the country awaits a day of judgment in the historic presidential elections case.

UTM Party president Saulos Chilima and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential hopeful Lazarus Chakwera are seeking the nullification of the May 21 2019 presidential elections that re-elected President Peter Mutharika.

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) —a panel of five judges: Justice Healey Potani, Ivy Kamanga, Dingiswayo Madise, Redson Kapindu and Mike Tembo—are  faced with making the most momentous decision any Malawian court has ever made.

The ruling is expected either this month or early February.

Speaking when she attended prayers organised by religious group in Phalombe at Chiketesa Primary School in Traditional Authority (T/A) Jenala on Friday, Kachikho said people should refrain from political violence and taking the law into their own hands.

“Remain calm until the court decides. And even then no violent acts will be conducted,” said Kachikho,

She warned that anyone who incites violence and engage in lawlessness will be punished by the law.

On his part, Bishop Dyson Phiri of Church of Abraham asked people to accept the ConCourt’s ruling as it will be “a direction from God.”

If the ConCourt nullify the petition as prayed for by the presidential candidates who finished third and second in the disputed official tally—they will only become the second court ever on the African continent—after Kenya’s, to cancel a presidential election.

But this is the first time an election referral has reached this stage in Malawi. And it has done so to the backdrop of a huge political crisis and gripped the attention of the whole country with the 17 million Malawians unprecedentedly able to follow all the court hearings via mass media.

Justice Potani, the head of the judges’ panel, said the determination may go either way or that the parties will have an opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court.

He, however, warned that the court will be forced to act if the parties react to the ruling in a manner that will undermine rule of law.

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