Malawi’s constitutional court on Thursday started hearing an opposition application that calls out for overturning the presidential election results. The hearing began in the capital, Lilongwe, reported Africa News.
The case follows complaints lodged by the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Transformation Movement (UTM) of alleged fraud in the May 21 vote.
The Malawi Electoral Commission, MEC, announced President Peter Mutharika, leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, as the winner in the May elections. Mutharika narrowly defeated his rival Lazarus Chakwera of the main opposition party, Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
After the election results were announced the two main opposition candidates, Chakwera of the MCP and former vice-president Saulos Chilima, who came third in the vote, filed a presidential election petition challenging the re-election. The opposition claimed that the voting results sheets were altered using typewriter correction fluid.
Chakwera claimed that he won the election, calling the result that saw him losing by 159,000 votes as daylight robbery.
In the petition filed, Chakwera contends that the process was “fraught with irregularities, including alleged stuffing of ballot papers with pre-marked ballots, tampering with election results sheets through correction fluid and being found in possession of result sheets at home.”
Mutharika has dismissed all the fraud claims against him winning 38.57 percent of the vote, saying international observers had deemed the polls as peaceful, free and fair.
On Thursday, UTM leader Chilima was the first to take the witness stand, after the defence failed in its attempts to force a postponement of the hearing.
Notably, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has 600 witnesses who are expected to be cross-examined in the election case.
Lawyer Khumbo Soko, who is representing UTM leader Saulos Chilima, said the number of witnesses could delay the case.
