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Malawi’s elections have been marred by “some serious irregularities”, including vote-rigging, President Joyce Banda has said.
She called for an immediate manual audit of the results. Banda faced a strong challenge in Tuesday’s election from three other presidential candidates, including ex-Foreign Minister Peter Mutharika.
Earlier, election officials said the electronic counting system had broken down in some areas.
Banda said in a statement that irregularities included:
- The arrest of presiding officers who were “caught in the act of rigging”
- Some people voting up to three times
- “Serious anomalies” where some candidates won more votes than the number of registered voters
- Discarded and tampered ballots
- Communication devices of some monitors being blocked.
The Malawi Election Commission (MEC) should address these concerns by doing a manual audit of the entire process, she said.
In some places, there was no electricity and lamps, causing delays.
“I appeal to all Malawians to continue with their commitment to peaceful co-existence and to remain calm until the Malawi Electoral Commission determines the outcome of the poll results,” the president said.
Eleven candidates ran against Banda, but her main challenger is seen as Mutharika, the brother of former President Bingu wa Mutharika who died in office in April 2012.
The MEC will announce results when 30 percent of votes have been counted, its chairman Maxon Mbendera said on Wednesday.
The MEC was “not anywhere in the neighbourhood” of that figure, he added.
Counting was being done manually because the electronic system was “refusing to take the information from the ground where our data clerks are stationed to send the results”, chief elections officer Willie Kalonga said.
Voting spilled into a second day at 13 voting stations, and thousands queued to cast their ballot.
In some places, voting boxes or lids did not arrive so officials used buckets and plastic wrap, correspondents say.
Around 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the fifth elections since the end of one-party rule 20 years ago.
Meanwhile, a Malawian deputy minister yesterday committed suicide, apparently over losing his parliamentary seat in this week’s general election, Zodiak broadcasting station and other media reported.
Outgoing deputy Local Government Minister Godfrey Kamanya shot himself in his home. Official results of Tuesday’s election are still to be announced.
But preliminary election results aired on radio stations indicated Kamanya was faring badly in the poll and was likely to lose his parliamentary seat.
In a suicide note now held by police, Kamanya reportedly said he took his life because of misunderstandings related to politics.
He also outlined how his wealth would be distributed and asked incumbent President Joyce Banda, under whom he served, to help pay school fees for his child.
“We had to break the door to his kitchen where he had locked himself up,” Kamanya’s friend Jemoth Chilapondwa — also a member of Banda’s People’s Party — told Zodiak.
“We found him lying dead in a pool of blood. Police will do their investigations and are the ones who can disclose more on this,” Chilapondwa said.
Kamanya’s death is a blow to Banda, who is facing three strong candidates in the tightly contested poll.
They are Peter Mutharika, brother of late president Bingu wa Mutharika; Lazarus Chakwera, an evangelical pastor; and Atupele Muluzi, son of former president Bakili Muluzi.
About 1,300 candidates also contested the 194 seats in parliament.
Several broadcasters said Mutharika and Chakwera had taken an early lead.
Banda’s rule has been tainted by a massive corruption scandal known as Cashgate, which led to donors slashing aid that had made up 40 percent of Malawi’s budget.
Voting ended officially on Tuesday, but some people were still casting their ballots yesterday at polling stations which had opened late. — Sapa
derick.khumalo