Malawi to go to polls again, after first election nullified

BLANTYRE, Malawi —
Voters in Malawi will return to the polls Tuesday to elect a president after the courts nullified the implications of the election held more than a 12 months within the past.

The Constitutional Court docket on Feb. 3 ordered that the election be held again, ruling that the first outcomes had been now now not exact on legend of of frequent proof of irregularities and vote tampering within the polls held in Would possibly well well presumably 2019.

The court struck down the victory of incumbent President Peter Mutharika citing proof of voting fraud, including hundreds of ballots that looked as if it would had been altered the utilization of typing correction fluid. The ruling used to be upheld by the Malawi Supreme Court docket.

Some 6.8 million Malawians are eligible to forged ballots at more than 5,000 polling stations across the country.

Within the 2019 polls, seven presidential candidates contested but now the number has plot correct down to two.

The 79-12 months-obsolete Mutharika, procuring for a 2nd and final 5-12 months term somewhat than work is up in opposition to the chief of the opposition Malawi Congress Event, Lazarus Chakwera, 65. Incumbent Vice President Saulos Chilima used to be also anticipated to gallop, but he determined as an different stand as Chakwera’s vice-president, in a direct to maximize possibilities of unseating Mutharika.

The contest appears to be like to be very shut. The Chakwera/Chilima label also can merely rob 51% of the vote, in step with a poll in early June by Malawi’s Institute of Public Knowing and Overview.

A different of native and world organizations will discover the novel elections, so as to plot obvious that they’re free and comely, the newly-elected chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission Chifundo Kachale acknowledged.