Witness insists Mec erred

Fourth witness for Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the election case Anthony Bendulo Thursday insisted that Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) erred by using duplicates for official transaction of results at its National Tally Centre in Blantyre in view of rules and procedure set out for the elections.

Apart from Bendulo, previous witnesses have also testified against use of duplicates in relation to the procedures.

“Use of duplicates is contrary to procedure as Mec said they would use original document for transmission of results,” he said

He also argued that the use of reserve tally sheets by Mec was also against the procedure and a mere tactic to rig the election.

But Mbeta asked the witness to produce evidence and confirm if this had any impact on the valid votes.

“Were there any reserve sheets where valid votes for [Lazarus] Chakwera were reduced and given to another candidate?” Mbeta asked

“Yes, I have seen some,” Bendulo responded Mbeta also sought to understand an alleged claim that stakeholders were not told of the extra materials that were printed in Dubai

“Do you have any other electoral materials that were not printed in Dubai?” Mbeta asked.

Bendulo, however, answered that some of the material that were not from Dubai were handwritten sheets.