The High Court of Malawi has nullified Nsanje South Constituency parliamentary election results, making it the third time a Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declaration in the September 16 General Election has been quashed.
Delivering her judgement yesterday on a petition by independent candidate Ramuzani Mahommed, presiding Judge Etness Chanza declared null and void a corrigendum MEC issued to declare Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Thomson Kamangira as winner.
“This court directs the first respondent [MEC] to hold a fresh election for the parliamentary seat of Nsanje South Constituency,” she declared.
MEC had initially declared Mahommed as the winner of the Nsanje South parliamentary election on September 30 2025.
But two days later on October 2, the commission issued a corrigendum and declared Kamangira as the duly elected member of Parliament (MP), stating that the decision was arrived at after a re-examination of void votes.
Mahommed challenged the declaration, arguing that the commission did not have authority to issue the corrigendum after the prescribed 14-day period for announcing results.
However, MEC argued that the examination of void votes was done within the prescribed period.
But in her ruling, Chanza said MEC had no legal authority to issue the corrigendum to correct the alleged error.
She further noted that MEC did not tender in court primary documents forming the paper trail used to determine election results.
On costs, Chanza ordered that they should follow the event and be borne by MEC.
In November, the High Court also nullified a MEC declaration of DPP candidate Martha Munthali-Ngwira as winner in Mzimba Hora Constituency, but the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal on December 1 halted the nullification pending determination of appeal.
The High Court also set aside MEC’s decision that nullified Lilongwe Mtandire-Mtsiriza Constituency election and declared Minister of State Alfred Gangata as declared winner.
The Judiciary had received 94 cases challenging parliamentary election results.
