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AU observer mission led by Sam Nujoma (2nd right) visits Chirimba polling centre
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Chiwembe polling centre set ablaze by angry voters
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By Albert Sharra
Tuesday, May 20 began like
any other day, but with all roads busy with people rushing to polling stations
to cast their votes before the lines turns long. It was the day everyone had
been waiting for.
As early as 4am, most polling
stations had long quees. The mood was normal—most offices except
for some schools were open—and business was as
usual in most parts of the country.
Despite some speculated fears
for a possible rigging, voters had confidence in Malawi Electoral
Commission (MEC), which a day
before had assured Malawians that the elections would be peaceful and that all
ballot papers were safe.
By 7am, most polling centers
across Malawi had opened and citizens were casting their votes in a peaceful
and free environment.
Ugly scenes erupt
Despite successfully
delivering voting materials in time to most polling centres, MEC was caught in
logistical problems that failed it to dispatch voting materials at some
centres. Fears of effectively delivering the materials started to rock two days
before the elections after MEC had
reported that it had
insufficient vehicles.
Nonetheless, the nation
breathed a sigh of relief after MEC had announced that government had allowed
it to use its vehicles. But no communication was made on whether the vehicles
will bear the Tripartite Elections (TPE) registration numbers or not.
This bred into chaos in
Lilongwe after residents saw a vehicle belonging to Lilongwe City Council (LCC) carrying election materials a day
before elections. The irate people stormed the vehicle at the Civic Centre
offices in Lilongwe and harassed MEC and government officials
including Chief Executive
Officer for LLC Richard Hara and Lilongwe District Commissioner
Charles Kalemba. The two resigned
forthwith as elections coordinators. This signaled that violence was a stone
throw away and any mess would propel into violence.
“Logistical problems”
as said by MEC, affected the timely delivery of voting materials at some
centres especially in Blantyre, Dedza and Lilongwe. This did not amuse some
voters who had been on the quees for more than four hours and resorted to
violence.
In Blantyre, chaos was
reported at Catholic Institute (CI), The Old Blantyre Taxi Office, Nkolokoti,
Ndirande, Blantyre Girls and Chirimba in Blantyre. In Ndirande, the irate
voters broke into the People’s Supermarket, but
were intercepted by police before causing significant damage. They also set ablaze
the voting materials and few minutes later, voters at Nkolokoti
primary school centre
followed suit.
Business was brought to a
halt, shops that were open closed and motorists drove for safety as the irate
voters from Ndirande and CI centres closed roads with stones and burnt tires. Ndirande
voters marched to the MEC offices and vandalised the commission’s
sign posts before being stopped by security guards. Voting at the centres began
few hours
later after security officers
had calmed the situation.
In Chiwembe Township,
Blantyre, voters lost patience after waiting for voting materials until 11am.
They also set ablaze Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) offices which was booked
for the exercise.
“I am sorry for this sad turn
of events. We had logistic problems and I have learnt that a number of centres
have been affected and voting materials have been damaged,”
said MEC Chairperson
Justice Mbendera at a briefing
which besides the media was attended by international observers
and diplomats, including
British High commissioner Michael Nevin and European Union Head of Mission Alexander
Baum.
Observers give their reports
Head of the African Union
(AU) Elections Observers Mission Samuel Nujoma described the elections as free
and fair. In their turn, through a preliminary report, the European Union (EU)
said the elections were peaceful that everyone had an opportunity to vote
freely. Missing was the
Sadc mission to whom the
incumbent president is chairperson until Saturday evening.
“The elections were peaceful, free, transparent and credible,”
reads in part the Sadc report.
Voting goes into next day
Delays in dispatching voting
materials characterised by wrong materials being delivered to centres, delayed
the beginning of voting in some centres. Since most of the voting materials for
some centres were burnt, MEC struggled to print new ballot papers from a local printer
and this delayed further, the start of voting at the remaining centres the
following day and this took the voting to a third day, Thursday. Huge turnouts
were recorded at all polling centres and people voted peacefully.
Vote count and MEC tabulation system
MEC planned to use a
computerised tabulation of votes from all tally centres, but the system failed.
Officers at the centres could not send the results straight to MEC.
“We are having problems with our system and we are going
for plan B. The results will be faxed or delivered by hand,”
said MEC chairperson Justice Mbendera at a press conference.
While MEC was struggling to
get the results, official broadcasters, Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) and
MBC Television were crushing towards the end of the vote count. The media
houses had deployed reporters to all tally centres to report on the figures
gathered from the tally
centres.
Speaking on his radio, ZBS
director Gospel Kazako said their reporters were reporting on figures from MEC
officials positioned at tally centres and signed by political party monitors
who were at the tally centres.
By Wednesday morning, ZBS had
reported that Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was on
the lead and was being trailed closely by Malawi Congress Party’s
(MCP) presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera. In its final report, ZBS
reported that DDP got
a total of 1 789 364, MCP 1
387 500, PP 1 042 686 and UDF 665 819.
Mesn and MEC supported the
figures. After counting 30 percent of the votes, MEC reported that its official
preliminary results showed DPP on the lead.
“Based on these reports, Mesn can report with 99 percent confidence that the official turnout
rate for the 2014 presidential election will be between 68.7 percent and 72.5
percent.DPP will get 36 percent followed by MCP with 28.4percent, PP will have
20 percent and UDF 13.6,” said
Mesn chairperson Steve Duwa,
while reading their final comprehensive report. Suicide and injunctions Thursday
began with its drama. Most parliamentarians in the ruling government had fallen
in the race and were busy restretegising on their next moves. While others were
admitting their loss through the media, former Local Government minister
Godfrey Kamanya decided not to, but commit suicide on allegations that he was
receiving death threats.
Despite MEC admitting that
there were several anomalies in the voting and that they will look into each
complaint, president Banda went to the High Court in Blantyre on Thursday to
stop MEC from counting and announcing elections results until irregularities
are rectified. The court
Rebuffed her.
48 hours later, using her
constitutional powers, Banda evoked section 88(2) of the constitution to
nullify the elections pending another election to be conducted within 90 days.
Speaking live on ZBS, Banda said the decision is to allow Malawians choose
leaders of their choice and she reported that she would not contest in the
elections.
However, her direction met
stiff resistance from MEC and the Malawi Law Society and the High Court granted
MEC an injunction stopping the president.
MEC bows down to vote recount
In a twist of events, MEC
began to lose its confidence in the credibility on the results from tally
centres on Saturday afternoon. It announced during press conference held on
Saturday evening that they have observed serious anomalies and are going to
recount all votes.
“We are not abandoning our
process, but while tabulating what we have, we are going for a vote recount. We
have observed serious anomalies. We will recount votes for presidential, parliamentary
and local government. We had a meeting with DPP, UDF, PP and MCP and we have agreed
to recount the votes, “said Commissioner Emmanuel
Chinkwita Phiri.
Court Rules on way forward
MCP, UDF and PP teamed up in
support for a recount and only DPP stood by its ground that there will be no
recount. However, none of the two camps had the powers on what next apart from
the High Court. By Wednesday, May 28, the nation was in dilemma on what next
and it all ears were on Blantyre High Court judge Kenyatta Nyirenda.
It took him two days, to give
his ruling and in a likely balanced judgment, Kenyatta allowed MEC to do a
recount, but on the other hand advised MEC to announce the results within the
specified period as outlined in the laws of the country. By then, MEC had only
few hours before the expirely of the time.
MEC Proceeds to announce official results
Few hours after the court
hearing, MEC through its chairperson Justice Maxwell Mbendera announced the
results which favoured the DPP and its president Peter Mutharika. There was
jubilation upon the declaration, hidden DPP clothes were fished out of the
handbags marking the return of DPP whose 10 year reign was interrupted by the
death of its president Bingu Wa Mutharika in 2008. This allowed the then vice
president Joyce Banda to take over with her People’s Party.
10 hours later on Saturday,
Peter Mutharika was sworn in as President of Malawi by Anastanzia Msosa at the
Blantyre High Court and 48 hours later, the president was inaugurated at a
special ceremony held at the Kamuzu stadium in Blantyre.
In both speeches, Mutharika
called for team work with the 11 losing partries.
