Malawi’s President Joyce Banda Orders New vote

Malawi’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party secretary general Dr Jean Kalirani says it is illegal for Malawian President Banda to cancel last week’s election results.
President Banda yesterday cancelled the presidential elections, saying she had powers to do so under the constitution.
President Banda, who was trailing DPP’s Peter Mutharika, said there were many irregularities hence the cancellation.
She said she had powers under the constitution (Section 88) and fresh elections would be held within 90 days.
President Banda said people were complaining about the elections.
“I am nullifying the elections, using the powers invested in me by the Malawi constitution. I want to give Malawians an opportunity to choose a candidate of their choice in a free and fair manner. When elections are to be held again, I will be stepping aside,” she said.
But Mambulasa said President Banda had no legal mandate to nullify elections.
Mambulasa said the electoral commission could not be challenged on the process until the final results were released. And Professor of law at Chancellor College which is under University of Malawi, Edge Kanyongolo, said he was puzzled because the section President Banda was quoting did not give her the powers that she was asserting.
He said the section being quoted by President Banda only dealt with “the President providing executive leadership and to promote unity.”
Prof Kanyongolo said he was struggling to see how the clause gave her powers to annul the elections.
A group of lawyers from the Malawi Law Association went on Zodiak Radio to tell the nation that President Banda did not have the powers to cancel elections.
They said even the clause (82) President Banda had cited was a wrong one.
Their statement prompted President Banda to go on radio again to say she made a mistake with the earlier clause she cited and gave Malawians a different one – Section 88 (2) – which states: ‘The President shall provide executive leadership in the interest of national unity in accordance with this Constitution and the laws of the Republic.’
“It was a slip of the tongue,” said President Banda.
But in an interview yesterday, Dr Kalirani said what President Banda was doing was illegal and that lawyers were already meeting to stop her from going ahead with her plans, through a court injunction.
“Right now the lawyers are discussing this issue. It is illegal and we putting in an injunction to stop this illegal act,” said Dr Kalirani.
And United Democratic Front secretary general Kandi Pandambo supported Banda’s move to cancel the election results, arguing that there were irregularities that had marred the polls.
“You see, there were a lot of irregularities in these elections. At some polling centres, fewer ballot boxes were delivered and in places where boxes ran out. Ballot papers were being put into baskets and sacks,” Pandambo said.
“Monitors representing political parties were also stopped drawing close to counting centres, and more so, at the constituency of my president Atupele Muluzi, 184,000 votes were cast when the constituency only has 8,000 registered voters.”
Pandambo said anomalies were recorded in many places, which was why the UDF like that of President Banda, has demanded a recount.
“So, we demanded for a recount and so on but the anomalies were so widespread and it’s only fair that maybe the decision taken by President Banda should be upheld, failure to which the elections in Malawi will not be credible,” said Pandambo.
Unofficial election results in Malawi indicate that Mutharika is leading the presidential race and poised to become president.
But the UDF, led by Muluzi, said the just-ended elections are the worst managed polls in Malawi’s 50-year history.
The unofficial results have been compiled by the privately-owned Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) radio and state-funded Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).
The two media institutions are official broadcasters appointed by the Malawi Electoral Commission.
The unofficial results show that Mutharika was leading with 1,789,364 votes, followed by Dr Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party with 1,387,500.
The unofficial results further indicate that People’s Party president, Banda came third with 1,042,686 and Muluzi is fourth with 665,816 votes.
Mutharika will become Malawi’s fifth Head of State should the MEC confirm the results.
The commission is the only authority with the legal mandate to announce the electoral outcomes in Malawi and has eight days from the last polling day to announce the official results.
And the MEC last night started announcing official results of the May 20 tripartite elections.
Of the 30 per cent votes counted, the MEC said Mutharika is leading with 42 per cent of the results sent to the tally centre in Blantyre, while Banda is second at 23 per cent.
Chakwera is third at 18 per cent and Muluzi is fourth at 16 per cent.
The MEC is expected to announce the next official results at 70 per cent and finally at 100 per cent.
But Muluzi says MEC chairperson, Justice Maxon Mbendera should explain anomalies on the result sheets or resign for failing Malawians.
Muluzi says Mbendera and his commission were contravening electoral laws by denying his party monitors access to duly signed summary of the final results of the poll at each polling station.
“Besides that is failure by MEC to address concerns raised by electoral stakeholders, including the tampering of the results,” said Muluzi.
And the European Union observer mission said notwithstanding considerable organisational shortcomings and a few isolated incidents of unrest, in particular in Blantyre, calm prevailed on election day.
“EU observers assessed the overall conduct of voting as being good or very good in 92 per cent of 404 polling stations. Political party representatives were present in the vast majority of polling streams visited,” stated the EU.
The EU further commended the MEC’s impartiality.

Posted by Kunda on May 25, 2014. Filed under AROUND AFRICA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry