By Cathy Maulidi
Governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) found itself in disarray Wednesday after initially appealing to the Supreme Court against a High Court verdict that invalidated its elective convention terms.
The party then withdrew the appeal within a few hours.
On Tuesday, Judge Howard Pemba annulled MCP’s National Executive Committee (Nec) conditions that barred new members and those who had not previously held positions in the party from contesting at the convention.
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Dissatisfied with the ruling, the party sought a stay of execution from the same judge but was turned down.
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The case then went to the Supreme Court, where Justice Dingiswayo Madise ordered a suspension of the convention.
“It is my very considered view that the balance of justice favours granting the order of stay on the following conditions:
“The applicant, the Malawi Congress Party, must file an inter partes application for the continuation of the order of stay within seven days.
“The respondent must file their response with arguments seven days after being served with the inter partes application. The hearing of the inter partes application will occur seven days after receiving the filed response,” Madise said.
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He ordered that, to ensure fairness to all parties, the convention was to be suspended until after the hearing and determination of the inter partes application.
MCP’s lawyer, Wapona Kita, confirmed that the party had instructed him to withdraw the appeal.
“This renders the Supreme Court’s order ineffective in this matter. As a result, the convention will proceed tomorrow [today], as my client has weighed the costs of postponement and convenience and decided to move forward with the elective convention,” Kita said.
He added that he had informed the Supreme Court of his client’s position and that the court had acknowledged it.
However, Kita could not confirm whether MCP would adhere to Judge Pemba’s order that the party’s elective convention eligibility criteria were invalid.
When asked how the party would handle the barred candidates, MCP Publicity Secretary Ezekiel Ching’oma replied: “Was the ruling on the 20 contestants? The convention will continue.”
This response suggested that the convention, slated for August 8 to 10, would proceed without the barred aspirants, including engineer Vitumbiko Mumba, who was seeking the position of first vice president.
In his ruling delivered on Tuesday, in a case where Eddie Banda challenged the MCP Nec’s decision to bar individuals like him from competing at the elective convention due to their alleged short tenure as party members, Judge Pemba said the Nec had no authority to make such a decision.
Wednesday, the party’s senior officials were engaged in several meetings following the ruling.
Through the convention committee, a press briefing was initially scheduled for 12pm and later moved to 4pm before being cancelled altogether.
Some MCP members of Parliament also called for a press briefing but later cancelled it. Additionally, some party youths planned to hold a press briefing which was also cancelled.
Earlier, Mumba had given the party’s Secretary General Eisenhower Mkaka and Convention Committee Chairperson Kezzie Msukwa until 12:30 yesterday to reverse their decision to exclude him from the list of approved and vetted candidates, threatening legal action.
Through lawyer Khumbo Soko, Mumba argued that the decision to exclude him from the list was legally unsound.
He also cited Judge Pemba’s verdict that invalidated the party’s Nec resolution barring some contestants on the grounds that they were not party members for two years and had not held any position.
