The Constitutional court sitting in Lilongwe has ruled that trial for the elections case will commence on July 29.

The ruling was made on Wednesday after considering additional information filed into the case.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP)’s president Lazarous Chakwera and UTM Party leader Saulos Chilima who are the first and second petitioners respectively, in a case in which they are pressing for the nullification of the May 21 Presidential results, have been given up to 1st July to submit all documents that will be tendered in court.

The Democratic Progressive Party’s President Peter Mutharika and the Malawi Electoral Commission, the frist and second respondents respectively, have been given up to 22 days to go through the fillings by MCP and UTM.

Earlier in the day, MCP and UTM applied to have disclosure documents from Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) some of which include bank statements of some of it’s employees.

The other application was for safe storage of election material in MEC’s possession.

MCP and UTM have also filled for a re-run when the court finds that the irregularities they presented are legitimate.

The court is expected to meet briefly on Thursday at three o’clock to make it’s determination on the issues.

There have been fears that MEC will get rid of the material after it announced it is auctioning off some of the materials.

However, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, MEC Communications and Public Relations Director in an email clarified that the materials being auctioned are those not used in the recent election.

Times and Zodiak radio we’re given the permission to broadcast the trial live.

Malawians have been keen to hear the outcome and way forward of the disputed results case.

Source : Kulinji