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MEC Ordered DBO to Flout Procedures

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chief Elections Officer Sammy Alfandika Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chief Elections Officer Sammy Alfandika

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chief Elections Officer Sammy Alfandika Monday morning told the Constitutional Court hearing the historic Presidential Election Case that the Commission gave instructions to elections auditors DBO to approve tally sheets that were not signed for by party monitors during the 21 May Tripartite Elections.

The MEC boss disclosed this during cross-examination by lawyer representing second petitioner Lazarus Chakwera, Modercai Msisha.

When asked to confirm if MEC indeed wrote a letter to the auditors requesting them to approve all tally sheets which contained signatures for presiding officers only, Alfandika responded, “That is correct.”

He, however, expressed ignorance on whether the letter was party of documents brought before the court.

Alfandika added that MEC also instructed the DBO auditors not to reject manually altered tally sheets.

During the cross-examination, it also transpired that some pages in the audit report were missing, which Alfandika said the commission did not enquire with the auditors, despite observing the anomaly.

However, the MEC CEO contradicted with MEC Chairperson Jane Ansah on the source of correction fluid Tippex which was used to alter election results on tally sheets.

He said an investigation by MEC found that the tippex was taken from Teacher Development Centres (TDCs) which MEC used as Constituency Tally Centres.

Ironically, the MEC Chair Ansah told Zodiak in an exclusive interview video clip which Msisha brought to court that she was not aware of the source of tippex.

But when Msisha squeezed Alfandika to explain the use of Tippex in Constituency Tally Centres that were not located at TDCs, he gave a rumbling answer.

This prompted Msisha to ask him if he maintained his response on the source of the fluid, to which he responded “No”, and subsequently withdrawing his earlier position.

In this case, UTM leader Saulos Chilima and his MCP counterpart want the court to nullify the May 21 election results and order for a re-run citing numerous irregularities in the election management system.

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Last modified on Monday, 02/12/2019

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