A snap shot of the Malawi's May 20, 2014 polls and its drama

AU observer mission led by Sam Nujoma (2nd right) visits Chirimba polling centre

Chiwembe polling centre set ablaze by angry voters

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.