Malawi president leads with most votes counted Malawi’s president Peter Mutharika arrives at his Democratic Progressive Party’s final election rally in Blantyre last weekend. — AP

Blantyre – Malawi’s incumbent President Peter Mutharika was in the lead after 75% of the votes were counted in this week’s election.

Official results showed Mutharika had captured 40% of the ballots cast in the southern African nation, putting him on track for a second term.

Mutharika’s main challenger, former Christian pastor Lazarus Chakwera of the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), followed with 35% of the vote, the electoral commission said.

The incumbent’s estranged deputy, Saulos Chilima, meanwhile received 18% in Tuesday’s polls.

Mutharika, who runs the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has promised a leaner cabinet and better infrastructure, but his first term in office saw failures in curbing corruption.

Malawi’s 6.8 million also elected a new parliament and local government councillors in the poverty-stricken former British colony.

About 70% of Malawi’s population of roughly 20 million people live under USD$2, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The nation is also still reeling from Cyclone Idai, which caused dozens of deaths and devastation in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in March.

Meanwhile, foreign observers of Malawi’s issued a preliminary assessment on  Thursday, saying that although the process was peaceful, it lacked a level playing field.

About a quarter of the votes remained to be counted, leaving challenger Lazarus Chakwera some room for hope.

The European Union observer mission said the Malawi Electoral Commission organised the elections well, but the pre-election period was marked with tension.

Miroslav Poche, chief of the EU observer mission for the Malawi elections, says that although the voting was generally peaceful, the playing field was not level. “What we see as a problem,” said Miroslav Poche, the EU mission’s chief observer, “is the abuse of state resources and also bias by state media.”

The EU mission also bemoaned attacks on opposition politicians ahead of the voting.

The leader of the Commonwealth observer team, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, said the election was well-managed but that it was premature to declare it fair.

Thabo Mbeki, leader of the commonwealth observer mission for the Malawi elections, says it is still premature to declare the electoral process fair on May 23, 2019.

“We are not making any judgments — that’s a matter that will arise later,” he said. “When everything has been done, then it will become possible for the observer team to say, ‘Now, given everything we have heard and seen, it is possible to say these elections were fair,’ and whatever.”

However, some opposition politicians said they had lost confidence in the vote-counting process under way at the main tally centre in Blantyre.

Eisenhower Mkaka, secretary-general of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, said the party would not accept the results if its candidate, Lazarus Chakwera, lost. Chakwera was about 5 percentage points behind Mutharika in the early vote count announced on Thursday by the Electoral Commission.

“We have got a state-of-the-art tally center which is actually collecting results from across the country,” Mkaka said, “and from what we have collected, we are quite comfortable that as the Malawi Congress Party, we are winning and therefore any results that go against what we have will not be accepted.”

However, the campaign director of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Ben Phiri, said it was premature for the party to say anything until the winner was announced. 

“We got prepared and we did what we could [to win the polls],” he said. “And we mobilised our people to go to vote. It’s just hours away from declaring who the winner is, and DPP, we are good to go.” 

The Malawi Electoral Commission is expected to announce the final results by May 29. – Al Jazeera

You Might Also Like

Comments