MCP joins opposition election challenge

Malawi's main opposition party, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), has thrown its weight behind a legal challenge to last month's presidential elections. The MCP's move bolsters the opposition's case, which took a knock when Gwanda Chakuamba, the head of the seven-party Mgwirizano coalition, and a key opposition leader, signed a post-election cooperation agreement with the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF). Chakuamba, leader of the Republican Party (RP), announced last week that he was withdrawing a court case against the Malawi Electoral Commission and the attorney general as part of a deal he reached with UDF leader and former president, Bakili Muluzi, in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU was also signed by another opposition party, the Movement for Genuine Democracy (Mgode). The MCP's lawyer, Gift Mwakhwawa, said he would be "asking the court to nullify the presidential election results, which the court has powers to do", pointing out that international poll observers had stopped short of declaring the 20 May ballot "free and fair". The MCP joins Mgwirizano coalition's newly elected chairperson, Aleke Banda, in challenging the results, which gave UDF candidate Bingu wa Mutharika a comfortable victory. The MOU provides the RP and Mgode with three cabinet posts and two deputies each in wa Mutharika's new government. The president is also obliged to first consult with the leaders of UDF, RP and Mgode - the signatories to the MOU - before hiring or firing any of their party members. But wa Mutharika is yet to name his ministerial team, with reports that Muluzi has been active behind the scenes in a bid to retain influence after a decade in power. However, the head of the Malawi Law Society, Charles Mhango, has argued that the MOU should not stand in the way of wa Mutharika exercising his constitutional powers. "The president need not to worry about the MOU clause, because it is null and void, since the Malawi constitution is above all other laws," he said.