Police spray teargas at MCP head office as Chakwera meets US ambassador

Malawi police have fired teargas into the  Malawi Congress Party (MCP) headquarters in Lilongwe and also at its supporters who took to the streets to march against “fraudulent” results of the May 21 Tripartite Elections.

Nyasa Times understands that at the time the police fired teargas into the party head office, MCP leader Lazarus Chakwera was inside meeting US Ambassador Virginia Palmer.

The opposition are challenging Malawi Electoral Commission’s (MEC) declaration of  “not credible” May 21 Tripartite Elections results sheets altered using correction fluid, Tippex.

MCP and UTM Party, whose presidential candidates Lazarus Chakwera and Saulos Chilima, respectively, finished second and third in the official results MEC announced, have moved the courts to nullify the elections, citing irregularities.

The quasi-religious group Public Affairs Committee (PAC) said in its analysis of the polls that the results management process lacked credibility, especially in the wake of revelations of use of Tippex.

The European Union Election Observer Mission also faulted the results management system.

Meanwhile, Garton Kamchedzera, a professor of law at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, observed that MEC acted as a competitor in the election instead of being a referee.

He said in quotes reported in the press that MEC’s own admission through chairperson Jane Ansah and chief elections officer Sam Alfandika that no Tippex was supplied was reason enough to reject any document tampered with using the correction fluid.

Kamchedzera said MEC should have been alert on the source of Tippex, whose use was widespread across the 5 002 polling stations nationwide.

He said: “Election officers who sent ‘Tippexed’ documents were assured that their documents would be accepted.

“Those documents were not credible. By accepting the documents, MEC was accepting to use documents and records that were not credible; and then taking them, assigning the label of credibility to something that was not credible.”