Court bombshell: DPP MP’s election win is torn up over voting ‘chaos’

Malawi’s highest court has sensationally overturned a parliamentary election result — dealing a huge blow to the country’s ruling party after judges found the vote was riddled with irregularities.

The Supreme Court of Appeal tore up Francesca Theula Masamba’s win in Mangochi East Constituency, ruling that the September 2025 election had been compromised.

Masamba, of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, had already seen her victory upheld by the High Court back in February — but that wasn’t enough to stop determined rivals Jackson Allie Daud Mataka and Abubakar Mbaya from taking their fight all the way to the top.

Nine top judges, led by Chief Justice Rizine Mzikamanda, sat to hear the dramatic showdown, as lawyers for the challengers laid bare a catalogue of failures in how the vote was run.

Lawyers Patrick Mpaka and Cassius Chidothe told the court that election officials had bungled the process — including combining two separate polling centres and completely failing to sort out complaints raised on the day.

Judges agreed the blunders were serious enough to throw the entire result into doubt — and scrapped it altogether.

The stunning ruling is a major embarrassment for the DPP and is expected to trigger a fresh by-election battle for the seat.