By Isaac Salima:
Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda Monday trashed the application of some Malawians, who are challenging the use of the national identity (ID) card as the only proof of identification during voter registration.
In his submission, Chakaka Nyirenda, who is the lead lawyer for the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec)—who are respondents in the case—described the applicants’ arguments as fit for an academic case.
This comes after the applicants argued that they had not been allowed to register during the voter registration exercise in Blantyre.
Five Malawians—namely George Chipwaira, Godfrey Banda, Alex Phillip Dimba, James Chitsulo and Crino Masulani—are challenging the validity of Section 12 of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act of 2023 which recognises the national ID as the only identifier for one to register and vote in an election.
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Chakaka Nyirenda argued that it was surprising that the claimants were saying that they had been sent back when voter registration had not started in Blantyre.
“The first thing that we highlighted was that for an injunction to be granted, they need to prove set criteria. Those criteria have not been proven. The matter is not yet ripe to come before court and we cannot be talking of granting an injunction,” the AG said.
He further argued that the claimants’ submission for the court to amend the Constitution falls under the armpits of the legislature.
“It is Parliament that is empowered, under the Constitution of Malawi, to amend laws. Courts are there to interpret laws. So, they cannot start introducing things that are not covered by the law,” he said.
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The claimants—who are being represented by Kalekeni Kaphale, Felix Tambulasi and Bob Chimkango—have, apart from challenging Section 12, also filed an application for an injunction against Mec’s voter registration exercise, which began yesterday.
The applicants’ lawyers argued that Mec should suspend the provision as it was against the right to vote.
They claimed that the National Registration Bureau was not clear on how many people had, so far, been registered to vote.
“What we are asking is that instead of Mec just registering those that have national IDs, they should open up and consider other forms of identification because what is being done now offends Section 77 of the Constitution on the franchise,” Tambulasi said.
Judge Mandala Mambulasa, who had time to question lawyers for both sides, has adjourned the case to Friday, when he will deliver his ruling on whether the injunction should be granted.
