By RFIPalled on 25-05-2019Modified on 25-05-2019 at 23:23
Malawi's justice asked the Electoral Commission on Saturday (May 25th) to suspend the announcement of the results of the presidential and legislative elections of May 21st. It orders the recount of the newsletters of a third of the districts of the country after a complaint of the opposition.
The announcement of the High Court of Lilongwe on Saturday follows a complaint by the main opposition party, the Congress Party of Malawi (MCP), which claims to have identified irregularities in 10 of the country's 28 electoral districts: handwritten annotations, traces of white corrector erasing some results or the use of unofficial registration sheets.
Many anomalies that " call into question the authenticity of the first results " of the presidential and legislative elections printed by the Electoral Commission, according to the opposition party.
The outgoing President Peter Mutharika in the lead
According to the latest official figures released Thursday night after the counting of three quarters of polling stations, the advantage would go to outgoing President Peter Mutharika with more than 40% of the vote against Lazarus Chakwera, leader of the MCP, with 35% of the vote .
However, the MCP believes that his candidate was " largely in the lead, " according to his own account.
The outgoing vice-president Saulos Chilima, tentatively in third place with 18% of the votes, called for the complete cancellation of the results and denounced " serious anomalies " in the counting.
In power since 2014 after a vote marred by numerous incidents, President Peter Mutharika has campaigned for a second term by praising his record in infrastructure, but his reign has been tarnished by corruption scandals.
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