Mec to conclude Chimangeni cross-examination Wednesday

Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) lawyers in the ongoing elections case have said they will finish cross-examining Malawi Congress Party (MCP) witness Peter Lackson Chimangeni Wednesday.

One of the Mec lawyers Tamando Chokhotho said so far, they have managed to establish that the documentation that the witnesses paraded in the court indicates that the votes the party tallied are the same as those the electoral body had.

However, Chimangeni told the court that the votes that the party had at its parallel tally centre were not the same as those that were announced by Mec.

According to Chokhotho, adding up the figures, it has shown that there is no such thing as missing votes or extra votes.

“There were several allegations that Mr Chimangeni was making, among them were that there are some missing votes or ballots and extra votes according to his analysis; but we have managed to show the fact that the documents that he was relying on between the monitors and the documents that Mec has, the votes are the same,” he said.

Meanwhile, MCP’s lead counsel Mordecai Msisha has said the party will parade five more witnesses.

“We have withdrawn some witnesses to ensure that we move quickly. They were useful witnesses but I think at the end of the day, if we do not succeed with the key ones that we are going to call, it is unlikely that those who we decided not to call would lead to success, so it is a strategy to shorten the period of trial,” he said.

Chimangeni started going through cross-examination Wednesday last week. Chimangeni was a data entry clerk supervisor at the party’s parallel centre during the May 21 Tripartite Elections.

The witness told the court that he was not only supervising people that were entering data at the party’s parallel tally centre but said he was also entering data.