Just two days after Malawi’s 2019 elections early results have been announced by Malawi’s Electoral Commission (MEC). However, Dr Jane Ansah, chief of the electoral body has called upon stakeholders including political parties to refrain from announcing premature results, pledging that the commission will start official declaration of results as soon as 20% of votes cast have been tallied.

Malawi’s 2019 has been one of the largest elections and is without question a high-stakes election.  

Lazarus Chakwera (64), leader of Malawi’s main opposition the Malawi Congress Party which is also Malawi’s oldest party has warned against attempts of rigging the election. Chakera led the MCP in the 2014 election but lost to Mutharika however he hopes that this year’s elections will go one better.  The electoral commission on Wednesday officially declared that with 35.67% of the presidential results having been collected Chakwe was in the lead with 37.65% with the current President, Peter Arthur Mutharika closely following with 37.01%. 

Mutharika’s (78) party the Democratic Progressive Party, the current ruling party of Malawi, under his term Malawi has faced food shortages, an increase in foreign debt as well as power outages.

Mutharika faces opposition from based Chakwera but also from his deputy president Saulos Chilama (46). Following a fall out with Mutharika, Chilma founded the United Transformation Movement. Malawi’s government system disallows the president from firing a deputy president. Chilama ran a vibrant youth-based campaign. 

The small aid-dependent country uses a “winner takes all” system and while in 2014 Mutharika won with just 36% of the vote, that could change this year. 

Dr Ansah has stressed the importance of parties not announcing unofficial results asking parties to not overstep the authority of the commission and reassuring that the commission is able of providing credible results following what has been declared a peaceful and fair election by electoral observers. Dr Ansah has also reassured people that the commission has a backup plan in place to overcome any technical issues that may occur seeing as this is Malawi’s first time using an electronic tallying system. 

Under the electronic tallying system, results are canned and sent to the national tallying centre in Blantyre, using specially designed forms that have several security features. The commission also has auditors who will confirm figures before they are released and displayed on giant screens at the national tally centre.

-JP