MCP insists Mutharika ruling with stolen vote, touts new electoral laws
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) MP for Lilongwe Msodzi South, Vitus Dzoole Mwale, and told parliament that President Peter Mutharika was ruling through a stolen votes but that their party leader Rev Lazarous Chakwera urged them not to react to avoid plunging the nation into turmoil.
In his contribution to the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Mutharika last week, Dzoole Mwale said “the whole electoral process was a fraud.”
On observers and some electoral stakeholders who are endorsing the elections as free and fair, Dzoole Mwale said they should “keep quite if they have no job to do now, otherwise they will [stir up] the hornet’s nest.”
He said when Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Justice Maxon Mbendera wept before declaring official results, “I foresaw that something went wrong at Comesa hall (national tally centre).”
Dzoole Mwale said it had to take Chakwera to appeal to members of MCP, the country’s first post-independence ruling party, to remain calm.
He also said the call by the Centre of Multiparty Democracy to carry out poll probe should be headed, insisting Mutharika was elected on “fabricated results”,
And MCP spokeswoman Jessie Kabwila also told Zodiak radio that MCP legitimately won the elections but DPP stole their victory.
“We trust Malawians elected us,” she said.
Kabwira rubbished European Union observer mission report endorsing the elections results as credible.
“It is an insult to MCP for EU, or Zodiak to say elections were not rigged,” said Kabwila.
“It was stolen votes, we won elections,” the MCP publicist insisted.
“It will still be on record that May 20 2014 elections were fraudulent,” said Kabwila.
She accused elections official broadcaster Zodiak for being “irresponsible” in the way they announced unofficial results and also Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) for working with DPP.
Meanwhile, Dowa East Member of Parliament (MP) Richard Banda has said there is need for Parliament to pass laws aimed at bringing sanity in the way elections are conducted in the country.
Malawi uses the first-past-the-post system where the candidate with the largest share of votes is declared winner of the presidential race.
“What happened in the just ended elections is a shame and puts a dent on our democratic course. As legislators, we are tasked to regulate the way certain crucial things must be done in the country,” he said.
He also took a swipe at the country’s Judiciary, noting it did not conduct itself in the right manner regarding the May 20 Tripartite Elections.
“The Judiciary should realise that issues of national interest like elections need to be handled with seriousness and maturity. Our learned friends should not regulate the wrong; otherwise, we are doomed for a hard fall,” Banda said.
The outcome of the presidential results was mired in controversy amid allegations of rigging and confusion over how the MEC should have proceeded in the wake of conflicting court rulings on vote counting.
The results of the vote were announced on 30 May, minutes after the High Court refused a last-ditch attempt to block their release and allow time for a recount.
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