DPP protests court ruling.
the petition to Blantyre City Chief Executive Officer Alfred Chanza
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members Monday took to the streets to, among other grievances, protest the Constitutional Court judgement which nullified the May 21 2019 presidential election results.
DPP dubbed the protest, which was held in Blantyre, as restoration of justice march.
The party, whose president Peter Mutharika was declared by the court to have been illegally elected during last year’s polls, claims, in its petition, that the court was misguided by declaring that presidential elections should be decided using 50%+1 electoral system because no petitioner prayed for that.
“The Constitutional Court found itself diving into strange waters of electoral reform agenda and into the 50%+1 debacle which no petitioner clearly prayed for,” reads DPP’s petition which was read by National Governing Council Member Henry Mussa.
The DPP argues that the Constitutional Court has overridden the Supreme Court’s definition of the term majority in order to advance what they call the courts’ agenda and appetite for the 50%+1 electoral system.
In its 10-point petition, the DPP also claims that there was no evidence to prove that the use of Tip-pex or tampering of tally sheets affected the total valid results saying Mutharika was legitimately declared winner because he amassed the highest number of legitimate votes.
“As the DPP, we therefore wonder and are concerned as we find no basis for the so called fresh elections,” reads the petition in part.
Mussa, however, said the party was ready for the forthcoming elections.
The party’s Secretary General Grezelder Jeffery hailed the protesters for marching and delivering their grievances peacefully to the Blantyre City Council peacefully.
Blantyre City Council Chief Executive Officer Alfred Chanza, who received the petition, promised to deliver it to the relevant authorities.
The protesters, who were ferried from various districts in the Southern Region, marched singing pro-DPP songs and dancing from the party’s regional offices in the Central Business District along the Masauko Chipembere Highway to the civic offices.
Similar protests have also been planned in the Eastern, Central and Northern Region.
On February 3, a panel of 5 judges, Justices Dingiswayo Madise, Healy Potani, Mike Tembo, Redson Kapindu and Ivy Kamanga nullified the presidential elections and ordered that a fresh election be held in 150 days starting from the day of judgement.
