(Reuters) - Final results of Malawi’s presidential
elections will be delayed, the electoral commission (MEC) said on Saturday
after the high court ordered a review of the polls following opposition
allegations of tampering.
Voters cast ballots for a president, parliament and ward
councillors on May 21, with President Peter Mutharika’s ruling Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) facing stiff competition from the Malawi Congress Party
(MCP), which filed the complaints alleging intimidation and tampering by the
DPP.
The Malawian High Court ordered the MEC not to release
results of the presidential vote until a judicial review of the complaints had
been heard and results from 10 districts were verified.
Malawian law says complaints must be resolved within the
maximum eight days between polling and the announcement of results. But
chairwoman of the MEC Justice Jane Ansah said the results would be delayed
until matters cited by the court were resolved.
“Presidential results have been withheld until we resolve
the issue of the court injunction which we have received. We are dealing with
all complaints,” Ansah told a press briefing.
The MEC has confirmed receiving 147 cases of
irregularities, most to do with the use of results sheets which had sections
blotted out and altered with correction fluid.
Protests have broken out in Malawi’s administrative capital
Lilongwe, an opposition stronghold, prompting police to deploy armoured trucks
to the area where people were tearing down ruling DDP posters and hurling rocks
at government buildings.
Before the recount was ordered over the complaints, the
MCP's candidate Chakwera was reported to have taken 35.4% of the votes tallied
in three-quarters of the polling stations. Incumbent President Peter Mutharika
was reported to be leading with on 40.9%.
Chakwera said his own party's estimates indicated he was
leading in the count.
The third-placed candidate, Vice President Saulos Chilima,
who had gathered 18% of the partial count, called for "nullification of
the aggregated vote."
The 78-year-old Mutharika has recently faced accusations of
corruption and favoring rural areas where he has most political support
President Mutharika, 78, came to power in 2014 and is
credited with improving infrastructure and lowering inflation, but has recently
faced accusations of corruption and of favouring rural regions where his
support is strongest.
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