Mec’s ICT boss claims system uncompromised

Third and last witness for Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) in the elections case has told the court that the Result Management System (RMS) which the electoral body was using to manage results of the May 21 tripartite elections was not tampered with.

The witness, Muhabi Chisi, who is the Director of Information C o m m u n i c a t i o n Technology (ICT) at Mec, told the court yesterday that no breach was recorded but unsuccessful attempts were recorded.

Chisi started presenting his simulation slightly after 2 o’clock in the afternoon and finished presenting his evidence after 5 o’clock in the evening.

But lawyer representing Malawi Congress Party president Lazarus Chakwera in the case, senior counsel Mordecai Msisha said Chisi was trying to bring new evidence in the court and that he was also trying to traverse what their witness Daud Suleman presented in his simulation. But the court allowed Chisi to continue with his simulation.

At some point, there was a network hiccup and the court had to adjourn for 15 minutes for ICT experts to work on the network.

After Chisi finished his simulation, he was examined by counsel Frank Mbeta who is representing President Peter Mutharika in the case.

After Mbeta finished the examination, lawyers representing UTM president Saulos Chilima said they were not ready to start cross-examining Chisi as they had to consult their ICT experts before commencing with the examination.

One of the lawyers counsel Chikosa Silungwe said they will be ready to start cross examining the witness at 8 o’clock today.

“We are not ready to cross examine the witness now because we have to go through the evidence and take instructions from our IT experts so we seek that we adjourn and proceed tomorrow (today),” he said.

If all things went according to plan the constitutional court is expected to finish hearing the case today. The court started hearing the matter on August 8, 2019.