By Isaac Salima:
The High Court sitting in Blantyre has reserved its ruling to May 9, 2025 in a case where some Malawi Congress Party (MCP) members are challenging the primary elections it has been holding.
MCP member Lovemore Chauwa is leading two others—Mos Dyce Milanzi and Clement Mwakatundu—who have applied for an injunction to stop the primary elections that the party has been conducting from February 17, 2025.
The three, through their lawyer Clement Mwala, also want the court to nullify elections that have already been held.
They claim that the committees that have been conducting the elections are illegal as their term of office expired, hence they are ineligible for the task.
Both parties appeared in court Monday, where they presented arguments.
MCP lawyer Abison Chitukula said they were challenging the defendants, claiming that their summons’ validity had expired.
“It is pointless for the court to be hearing an application which is no longer valid. The summons is valid in the High Court for three months. These proceedings were commenced on November 4, 2024 but the summons were served on March 19, 2025, which is beyond three months,” he said.
Judge Mandala Mambulasa has since adjourned the matter to May 9, when he is expected to make his ruling.
The claimants are against regional committee members, who are organising the primaries, such as Patrick Zebron Chilondola, Abraham Liwonde, Elvis Kachigwada, Wendy Nalumo, Funny Mtambitsa and others.
They say their term of office expired and that they are yet to be re-elected.
In January this year, MCP said it would start holding primary elections on February 14, starting with constituencies that had no sitting legislators.
The party’s publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila said at the time that they had decided to start the primary elections process as one way of preparing for the September 16 2025 Local Government and Parliamentary Elections.
“The party will conduct primary elections in phases. Primary elections for the other constituencies [which have sitting members of Parliament] will be held from April 16,” Kabwila said.
Political analyst Chimwemwe Tsitsi said holding primary elections would give would-be voters ample time to know who to vote for on election day.
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