The Malawi Diaspora Grouping in South Africa has welcomed the decision by Malawi’s Constitutional Court to uphold an application from opposition parties to nullify Peter Mutharika‘s victory in the May 2019 presidential election.
The court has ordered that a new presidential vote be held in 150 days.
Mutharika, who has been Malawi’s President since 2014, won the election with a 38.57% share of the vote.
The opposition party leader Lazarus Chakwera received 35.41% in the final tally and Deputy President Saulos Chilima 20.24%.
The electoral commission declared Mutharika the winner despite complaints of irregularities.
Chakwera and Chilima both rejected the results and filed a petition to the High Court asking it to nullify the results.
The diaspora grouping’s chairperson Priscilla Mwasinga says they are elated about what she terms positive news.
“We are happy that it has come to this because people were anxious to know, but now we know that we’ve got a way forward in our country. President Mutharika is a law professor by profession, so I’m sure that he will abide, he’s a man of law, he knows the law and I’m sure he would not want to go against the laws of Malawi. When they were announcing the results, there was peace and calm in all the towns in Malawi. We’ve been following even here in the diaspora, there was peace and calm. There was no violence; people were just waiting to hear what the court says.”
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