Malawi's Mutharika wins tight presidential election as opposition parties dispute results

Incumbent President Peter Mutharika has been declared winner of the tightly contested presidential election while the opposition political parties claimed there were irregularities in the election.

In this file photo taken on April 7, 2019 Malawi's President Peter Mutharika salutes the crowd as he arrives at the venue for the official launch of his Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) manifesto and election campaign at Kamuzu Institute for Sports in Malawi's capital Lilongwe. [File photo: AFP/Amos Gumulira]

Mutharika won with 38.57 percent of the votes against his closest rival Lazarus Chakwera, the country's main opposition leader of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) who gained 35.41 percent of the votes. Vice-President Saulos Chilima was third with 20.24 percent of the votes.

Mutharika, 78, recorded a slight increase in the number of votes won from 36.4 percent he got in 2014.

However, the elections were also tight in the parliamentary race with the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) winning 62 seats in the 193-seat parliament while the main opposition party got 55 seats, with independents also getting 55 seats.

The United Transformation Movement (UTM) of Vice-President Saulos Chilima only managed a paltry four parliamentary seats with three small political parties sharing 16 seats.

Initially, there were 10 presidential candidates but three were disqualified for various reasons, according to the electoral body.

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared Mutharika winner for his second and last term in office after a high court threw out an injunction filed by the main opposition party on Saturday demanding that announcement of election results for the presidential election be suspended due to irregularities in some districts.

The party had also demanded for a vote recount.

The suspension of the announcement of the results caused tension in the country with reports of violence mainly in the main opposition party strongholds. A number of people were arrested in the process, according to the police.

Rodney Jose, Inspector-General of the Police warned during a press briefing on Monday that the police will not allow electoral-related violence and that investigations have been launched against the main opposition leader who had earlier issued a statement that there will be bloodshed if he was not declared winner of the election.

The opposition political parties had raised complaints ranging from number of registered in some polling stations and the number of votes cast not tallying, the use of correction fluid to change results and the issue of some presiding officers going away with result sheets.

The electoral body acknowledged that it received a total of 147 complaints from political parties but noted that all the complaints were resolved and was confident that the announced results reflect the will of voters.

"The commission has thoroughly reviewed all the complaints that were lodged for the presidential election and we declare the presidential elections to be free and fair and these results are the true reflection of the will of the people of Malawi," Justice Jane Ansah said during a press briefing at the National Tallying Center.

She said the electoral body did everything possible to ensure that the election was transparency, credible and free and that all the issues raised by stakeholders were duly attended to.

According to her, the credibility of the election were attested by international observers who commended the electoral body on the way it conducted the elections.

In their preliminary statements, the international observers, which include the Commonwealth Electoral Observer Mission, the European Union (EU) Electoral Observer Mission and the African Union (AU) Electoral Observer Mission all expressed delight over the manner the elections were managed despite a few challenges.