Malawi’s High Court on Saturday ordered the electoral board not to announce presidential results until ballots from a third of the voting districts have been recounted, after opposition complaints of rigging.
The electoral body which has to announce the final results within eight days of voting, had on Friday suspended updating the tallies from the May 21 vote in order to resolve 147 complaints raised by some of the parties.
The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of Lazarus Chakwera went to court after noticing what it claimed were irregularities in results from 10 of the country’s 28 districts.
These serious irregularities have, in fact, worsened and, in the process, the credibility and integrity of these elections have been significantly compromised.
The court in the capital Lilongwe on Saturday ordered that ‘the announcement of presidential results is stayed until the results … are verified through a transparent recounting of the ballot papers in the presence of representatives of political parties which contested the elections.’
The European Union observer mission has described the vote as ‘well-managed, inclusive, transparent and competitive’.