Malawi opposition leader Lazarus chakwera has won the country’s presidential rerun elections with an overwhelming 58.57 percent of the vote, officials said.
“Chakwera’s victory is a ray of hopes to lovers of democracy and social justice in African opposition politics.” Anonymous govt Source posted on Facebook.
He defeated incumbent Peter Mutharika whose victory in May2019 was overturned by the constitutional court in February 2020 on allegations of high levels of fraud and vote tampering.
The decision by the constitutional court reached after mass protests opposing Mutharika’s victory as challenged by the opposition leaders. Malawi became the second African state to a null presidential elections after Kenya in 2017.
On May8th this year Mutharika petioned court but lost the petition. The country was bitterly divided in the run-up to this week’s election.
On Tuesday this week, over 6.8milion voters in Malawi lined up to cast votes amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
Chifundo Kachale, the Chairperson Malawi Electoral Commission on Saturday told journalists that Chakwera won elections.
“The commission declares that Lazarus Chakwera, having attained 58.57 percent of the vote, has been duly elected as the president of Malawi.”
Mutharika came second with 1,751,377 votes, while underdog candidate Peter Dominico Kuwani received 32,456.
He further said that the voter turnout was 64.81 percent a good number given the prevailing health conditions.
Upon receiving the good news of victory, President elect Lazurus Chakwera said: “This is a win for Malawians, it is a win for democracy, a win for justice,”adding: “My heart is bubbling with joy.”
He added that “It is a win that will enable this nation to really reset and begin to build a new kind of Malawi in which all of us together will be involved.”
Defeated Mutharika disregarded results saying that the electoral rerun contained flaws citing out violence and intimidations against his DPP party members.
Meanwhile, Chakwera’s supporters welcomed the news in loud cheers hooting car horns in the capital Lilongwe at his Malawi Congress Party Hqtrs.
Mr Chakwera is expected to be sworn in on Sunday.
