Malawi’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday threw out an application by President Peter Mutharika and the country’s electoral commission to suspend a landmark judgement that annulled last May’s presidential elections. “This is a public law case and the law must be cautiously applied,” said Judge Dingiswayo Madise. The court also rejected the electoral commission’s argument that another election would be costly for the impoverished country. “Democracy is expensive. Citizens’ rights are paramount. The court will not stop the pursuit of constitutionally sound elections on account of cost,” Madise said. The electoral commission’s chief had earlier defended the use of results sheets that had been altered with correctional fluid. The Constitutional Court also found that less than a third of the results from the more than 5,000 polling stations had been certified by the auditors by the time Ansah declared Mutharika as the winner of the presidential race.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA