Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika has secured a second term in office with 38.5 percent of the vote in the recently held Presidential election, according to election results announced on Monday.
Electoral commission chairwoman, Justice Jane Ansah, announced the results on Monday in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre.
“I hereby declare Arthur Mutharika as the winner of the presidential election held on 21 May,” MEC chairwoman Justice Ansah said, reported Africa News.
The 78-year-old Mutharika, who heads the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), faced a tough fight from opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), who finished in second place with 35.4 percent of the vote. His deputy, Saulos Chilima of the United Transformation Movement (UTM), finished in third place winning just over 20 percent of the vote.
The voting results were declared after the high court lifted its weekend injunction that barred the release of voting results after the opposition accused Mutharika’s ruling party of tampering the results.
Last week, the Malawi Congress Party got a court injunction halting the electoral commission in releasing the presidential results which they claimed were rigged and tampered. They demanded a recount in 10 districts where electoral irregularities occurred and pressed the electoral body to investigate the 147 complaints from parties involved in the May 21 ballot.
The opposition also complained that figures on many vote count sheets were altered using correction fluid.
Despite concerns, the high court lifted the injunction saying that a probe of the irregularities can continue after the results were announced. Ansah, however, declared the elections “free and fair” during Monday’s announcement.
“The Commission has thoroughly reviewed all the complaints that were lodged for the presidential election and we declare the presidential elections to be free and fair and these results are the true reflection of the will of the people of Malawi,” said Ansah.
