Polls have closed in Malawi's hotly contested presidential vote, the second time in just over a year, after incumbent President Peter Mutharika's re-election was annulled by the courts over irregularities.
Some 6.8 million people were eligible to vote in Tuesday's
rerun, practically a two-horse race between Mutharika and opposition leader
Lazarus Chakwera. A third candidate, Peter Kuwani, was also in the running.
The election is much anticipated after the Constitutional
Court in early February ruled that the May 2019 vote was fraught with
"grave and widespread irregularities", including the use of
correction fluid on results sheets.
It ordered new elections be held within 150 days of its
February ruling.
Mutharika slammed the verdict as a "serious
miscarriage of justice" and, along with the electoral commission, filed an
appeal. But on May 8, the Supreme Court upheld the earlier ruling, setting the
stage for Malawians to return to the polls again.
On Tuesday, there was a big turnout in the cities of
Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba, with some voters arriving an hour before
polling stations opened at 6am.
"I am happy because this rerun is the will of the
people. And with this vote, I just hope that the best person wins. The will of
the people will triumph," said Peter Chadza, 26, a businessman who arrived
at a polling station in Lilongwe an hour and a half before voting was due to
start.
Voting proceeded without major incident, although regional
police spokesperson Williams Kaponda said 20 people had been arrested on Monday
night after being found with a fake ballot box stuffed with pre-marked ballot
sheets.
Mutharika, of the governing Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP), voted in his home district of Thyolo in southern Malawi. He called for a
peaceful election after hearing about a few reports of harassment
"People should be allowed to choose a leader they
want, to govern this country," he said.
Chakwera, leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), who
voted near Lilongwe, also called for non-violence.
Chifundo Kachale, the recently appointed chairperson of the
electoral commission, assured voters the polling process would be fair.
"We do not want issues which were identified in last
year's annulled poll to arise again," he told reporters on Monday.
He did not give a definite date for when results would be
released.
In last year's nullified vote, the 79-year-old incumbent -
an academic and brother of former president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika - was
handed a second term in office with 38.57 percent of the vote, slightly ahead
of his main challenger, Lazarus Chakwera, at 35.41 percent.
But now, a candidate will have to garner more than 50
percent of the votes to be declared the outright winner and avoid the
possibility of a runoff.
In March, the two opposition parties that petitioned the
constitutional court to review last year's election - the Malawi Congress Party
(MCP), headed by Chakwera, and the United Transformation Movement (UTM) -
announced that they would team up in the election re-run.
Chakwera, a 65-year-old pastor turned politician, was
chosen to lead the newly formed Tonse Alliance, which also includes several
smaller parties. His running mate is Saulos Chilima, UTM leader and Mutharika's
former deputy who finished third in last year's poll. Combined, the pair's
official 2019 vote tally surges to almost 56 percent, well above the threshold
that guarantees an outright win.
For its part, Mutharika's DPP joined forces with the United
Democratic Front (UDF), led by Atupele Muluzi, the son of former President
Bakili Muluzi. If they repeat last year's electoral performance, the joint
DPP-UFF ticket would gather a little more than 43 percent.
"This election is unique. First, this election is born
out of a court ruling, and second, they will follow the 50-percent-plus-one
system," the Public Affairs Committee, an influential quasi-religious
civic group, said in a statement.
Gift Trapence of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition,
which led months-long countrywide protests against last year's election
results, has high hopes this time around.
"Our expectation is that this election will be
credible and fair enough to Malawians," Trapence said, while warning:
"We will remain vigilant." Al Jazeera
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