Chakwera adds voice to vote audit call
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera has added his voice to the call for Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to have vote audit on the presidential elections, citing “serious irregularities.”
Unofficial results show Peter Mutharika of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chakwera in close contest,
Malawian President Joyce Banda said the elections have been marred by irregularities and demanded a “manual audit” of the process.
And Chakwera added his weight to the calls, saying MEC was facing “certain challenges”.
He said MCP has lodged complaints to the electoral body on irregularities.
“Some of the serious irregularities include insufficient ballot papers and cardboard boxes being used as ballot boxes, failure to supply torches to polling stations which started voting late and forms from which to record results leading to presiding officers to write using improvised forms,” Chakwera told a news conference in the capital Lilongwe.
Chakwera also said MEC should check the physical results from constituencies’ returning officer against the physical results for both parliamentary and presidential results.
“This is one way of ensuring peaceful, fair and credible elections,” he said.
However, the cleric turned politician urged Malawians to remain calm.
He expressed gratitude to members of the MCP and its supporters “for being calm during these trying times and appeal to you all to maintain this peace and calm.”
