Atupele protests early results announcement
United Democratic Front (UDF) presidential candidate, Atupele Muluzi has protested the early announcing of elections results, arguing it might influence voters currently casting their ballots in centres that were suspended on Tuesday.
In the early results the media is depicting form the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) tally centre, Atupele is trailing in the presidential race on fourth position with 15 percent comparing to other contenders.
Speaking with Zodiak radio, Atupele said the early announcement was going to have huge influence on the outcome from the remaining 13 polling centres, which are currently conducting the elections.
Voting in the said centres was stopped Tuesday due to riots and delay or lack of enough voting materials.
Atupele said the authorities were supposed to withhold the results until all polling centres were done with voting process.
But Mec Chairperson, Maxon Mbendera while admitting taking a gamble on the choice to extend voting to today, argued that the results from the remaining centres would not have huge impact on the final outcome.
Mbendera argued the closed centres represented only one percent of the 4,445 polling stations listed in this year’s tripartite elections.
Meanwhile, Mec has threatened to call off elections in the centres if riots resurface.
A total of 18 parties have fielded candidates for 193 parliamentary seats and 462 local government posts. Out of 1,100 polling centres of 4445, Peter Mutharika is leading by 31 percent with Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate, Lazarus Chakwera 25 percent, Peoples Party (PP) presidential candidate Joyce Banda 23 percent, Atupele Muluzi 15 percent.
Vote counting is still in progress with the country most past of the country already done counting. MEC expects to announce the final and official results by Friday this week.
