Malawi’s constitutional court judges have today been presented with the 2020 Chatham House Prize – a year after the ceremony was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is the first time that the prize has been presented outside of London as has been the tradition.
Director of Chatham House Africa Programme and a managing director
of the institute said the five judges demonstrated courage and independence in the defence of democracy in the historic February 2020 ruling that annulled the May 2019 presidential election.
On his part, Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda has said judicial independence is very important as it benefits the public and court users.
The judges: Healey Potani, Ivy Kamanga, Professor Redson Kapindu , Dingiswayo Madise and Michael Tembo, formed a five- member constitutional panel ,which presided over the historical case for nine months between the year 2019 and 2020.
It was a case in which results of the 2019 presidential election were nullified due to irregularities which the constitutional court said affected the outcome of the poll.
The court ordered that a fresh presidential poll be held, leading to change of government.
