· The constitutional court’s historic decision to overturn the
2019 presidential election of Malawi seems to have come as a
surprise to the citizens of the southern African country
· Malawi’s president Peter Mutharika has decided to challenge
the constitutional court’s decision to nullify results of the 2019
presidential election.
Opposition supporters in Malawi are upbeat after a panel of five top
judges annulled the results of last May’s presidential election. The
constitutional court’s historic decision to overturn the 2019
presidential election seems to have come as a surprise to the
citizens of the southern African country. The country’s constitutional
court rules that it found evidence of fraud and malpractice in the
results of the poll and therefore, it was null and void. Experts and
human rights activists had hailed the constitutional court’s decision
and said that it was path-breaking.
However, Malawi’s president Peter Mutharika has decided to challenge
the constitutional court’s decision to nullify the results of the 2019
presidential election. The poll was conducted some six months ago.
Five top judges ruled that Mutharika was “not duly elected”, citing
massive and widespread irregularities including the use of correction
fluid on results sheets and ordered a fresh poll within 150 days.
Mutharika’s spokesman, Mgeme Kalilani, described the ruling as a
serious miscarriage of justice and an attack on the foundations of the
country´s democracy. The 79-year-old president has up to six weeks to
appeal.
The Malawi Congress Party, which is the largest opposition party
hailed the landmark verdict as a victory for democracy and Africa.
Mutharika was declared the winner of the May 21 election with 38.5
percent of the vote. Claiming that there was widespread rigging in the
election, Chakwera went to court to challenge the result.
In their unprecedented ruling, the constitutional court judges
concurred that “the irregularities and anomalies have been so
widespread, systematic and grave… that the integrity of the results
has been seriously compromised.”
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