The High Court sitting in Blantyre has dismissed a petition that sought to nullify the Parliamentary election results for Mangochi East Constituency.
The petition followed the Parliamentary elections held on September 16 last year, in which the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared Francesca Masamba Theula of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as the duly elected Member of Parliament.
Two of her competitors, Abubakar M’baya of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and independent candidate Daudi Mataka, challenged the results and asked the court to nullify the election, citing alleged irregularities.
The petitioners argued that some result forms were not signed by their monitors and that their representatives were not provided with copies of the result sheets.
They also claimed that one of the result sheets used in the tallying process was not signed by the presiding officer, which they said compromised the credibility of the results.
In his ruling, High Court Judge Vikochi Chima said the petition lacked merit, noting that the alleged irregularities were not substantial enough to affect the outcome of the election.
Judge Chima ruled that the issues raised did not justify overturning the will of the electorate and therefore dismissed the petition.
During the proceedings, Francesca Masamba Theula was represented by lawyers Gilbert Khonyongwa and Steve Mponda of Robert Lexus Global Consultants.
