Tippex use affects Malawi presidential poll results: MEC refuses to name culprits

Tippex—a brand of correction fluid—is apparently said to have been overwhelmingly used in the erasing and then rewriting of results in Tuesday’s election, a development that has forced pollster Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to abate updating of the presidential results until “complaints are sorted out.”

Tension has gripped the country in the last  as the citizenry anticipated an official update on the presidential race on Friday.

The last update, on Wednesday, put Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Peter Mutharika ahead with Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM Party Lazarus Chakwera and Saulos Chilima trailing second and a distant third respectively.

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson, Jane Ansah, sounding calm and confident said they would not rush to announced the presidential results until all complaints were resolved.

She revealed that the Commission received 147 complaints on Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections.

“Our legal team is expediently reviewing all the complaints received and giving feedback to the complainants,” said Ansah.

Responding to questions from the media on alleged use of tippex, Ansah said “its use was synonymous” across the districts.

“The issue has not left any district where tippex has not been used. And, therefore I cannot say which party was using it. I can’t say that. Then we would not be making any progress,” she said, briefly.

According to Ansah, she was perturbed by the use of tippex on the result sheets which MEC never provided to its staff during the elections.

She insisted that the commission would withhold the presidential results arguing it was crucial that all issues are sorted out.