LILONGWE, Feb 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Malawi opposition supporters celebrated overnight after a landmark court ruling that declared incumbent President Peter Mutharika was “not duly elected” in a disputed 2019 vote.
The country’s constitutional court on Monday ordered a fresh vote within 150 days after it annulled the May election result over widespread irregularities, including the use of correction fluid on results sheets.
It had been feared that the verdict would stoke turmoil in the normally peaceful southern African country.
But there were scenes of jubilation overnight as opposition supporters chanted anti-Mutharika songs in the streets, sporadically setting off fireworks in the two largest cities Blantyre and Lilongwe.
The Nation newspaper led with the headline “Null and void”, while the Daily Times blared “It’s fresh election”.
Businesses and shops re-opened after they pulled down their shutters the previous day fearing an outbreak of violence following the verdict.
Mutharika, 79, will remain president until the new election because he was in power before the now-invalidated 2019 result.
Lazarus Chakwera, the leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, who came a close second to Mutharika, hailed the landmark verdict as a victory for democracy and Africa.
Addressing more than 10,000 jubilant opposition supporters who thronged his party’s Lilongwe headquarters, Chakwera said “this is a great day”.
“It is democracy that has won. It is Malawi that has won. It is Africa that has won. And now justice has been served,” he said.
In a historic ruling the five judges concurred that “the irregularities and anomalies have been so widespread, systematic and grave… that the integrity of the results has been seriously compromised”.
It is the first time a presidential election has been challenged on legal grounds in Malawi since independence from Britain in 1964, and only the second African vote result to be cancelled, after the 2017 Kenya presidential vote.
Mutharika plans to challenge a court decision overturning his 2019 poll victory, his spokesman said on Wednesday, in a move that could spark fresh opposition protests.
Mutharika’s spokesman, Mgeme Kalilani, described the ruling as “a serious miscarriage of justice and an attack on the foundations of the country’s democracy”.
He did not say when Mutharika would bring the challenge, but the 79-year-old president has up to six weeks to appeal.
Mutharika was declared the winner of the May 21 election with 38.5 percent of the vote, Chakwera losing by just 159,000 votes. — NNN-AGENCIES
