Malawi’s Electoral Commission (MEC) is in the process of tallying votes cast Tuesday in the country’s presidential election re-run with the opposition alliance led by Lazarus Chikwera in a comfortable position to win the poll.
State and private media reports in Malawi indicate that Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party has amassed at least 55 percent of the vote with incumbent president Peter Mutharika trailing.
Freelance journalist, Janet Dambula, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the MEC is expected to announce the election results either today or Saturday.
“We are waiting for the election results and indications are that the opposition has won. The (Malawi) Electoral Commission is verifying and tallying the votes at the moment. It appears that the opposition is in a comfortable lead,” said Dambula, a veteran journalist based in Lilongwe.
Several Malawians expressed similar sentiments with some of them adding that the election was peaceful despite complaints of intimidation and violence being made by Mutharika’s Democratic Progressive Party, which has threatened to reject the results of the poll.
The Malawi Constitutional Court nullified the 2019 presidential election, noting some anomalies in vote counting.
Little-known Peter Kuwani of the opposition Mbakuwaku Movement for Democracy is also contesting the election.