Lawyers representing Malawi Electoral Commission, the first respondent in the high profile election case, have today morning finished cross examining Mirriam Gwalidi, who is the key witness for the first petitioner, UTM.
During the hearing of the case on Tuesday, Chairperson of the five-judge panel hearing the case Healey Potani, declared that part of the evidence which Gwalidi provided in the court was hearsay.
This was during cross examination when lawyer for MEC Tamando Chokotho pinned down Gwalidi on her documentary evidence during the inspection of a MEC ballot warehouse.
Gwalidi had disowned a seven-page document which she was told to read in the court which was compiled during the inspection of the ballot warehouse.
The UTM witness said did not author the document herself prompting Chokotho to ask the court to disregard the evidence.
In his line of cross-examination, the MEC lawyer sought to solicit a confession from Gwalidi that any evidence collected during the exercise was inadequate to cast doubt on the validity of the election results.
Potani ruled in favour of Chokotho after lawyer for UTM Bright Theu protested but the Constitutional Court Judge ordered that the document remains part of the sworn affidavits for record purposes.
At some point, cross-examination was briefly interrupted by a legal battle over introduction of pictures in court by DPP lawyers for identification of pictured item by UTM witness Miriam Gwalidi for her recollection
Meanwhile, lawyers of President Peter Mutharika have taken over the cross examination of the UTM witness.
MEC will cross-examine all 38 witnesses for Chilima, the first petitioner, as well as 16 witnesses for Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate Lazarus Chakwera, who is the second petitioner, according to Chokotho.
Chakwera and Chilima, who came second and third respectively, are challenging the results of the May 21 election, in which Peter Mutharika of DPP was declared winner with 38 percent of the votes.
