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After a rigorous legal battle, the Malawian constitutional court on Monday nullified the results of a presidential vote which declared incumbent President Peter Mutharika winner in May.
The election results favored Mutharika with purported 1,940,709 votes against opposition leaders -- Lazarus Chakwera, who amassed 1,781,740 votes, and Saulos Chilima with 1,018,369 votes.
Chakwera, president of the Malawi Congress Party, and Chilima, leader of the United Transformation Movement, challenged the results citing "overwhelming evidence of irregularities and use of tippex in the management of the results."
In its seven-hour-long ruling on Monday, the constitutional court sitting in the capital city Lilongwe upheld the opposition leaders' petition faulting the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) for flouting electoral procedures as stipulated in the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act (PPEA) and the constitution of Malawi.
"The court's final determination is that the petition to have the presidential election nullified met both the qualitative and quantitative tests of the court," said Judge Healy Potani, president judge of the panel of five judges that presided over the case.
"The irregularities and anomalies were so wide spread, systematic and grave that the integrity of the results was compromised," he said.
The court further observed that the use of tippex and alterations on results "greatly undermined the integrity of the electoral process" and affected the final count of the vote.
The MEC was also faulted for its failure to take into consideration complaints made by the opposition leaders first before announcing the final results of the election as stipulated in the PPEA.
The court also found out that the MEC lacked openness in that the commission's role in handling complaints were dedicated to the chief elections officer contrary to the provisions of the PPEA.
"Delegation of duties to the chief elections officer was unreasonable, absurd, and unconstitutional as any decision that affected the process was supposed to go through commission's meeting and the position of the majority to be upheld," said the judge.
The electoral body was also faulted for the use of duplicate tallying forms instead of originals to determine the winner.
The court ordered that fresh election should be conducted 150 days after the day of the ruling.
"The status in the presidency and vice presidency reverts to what was there prior to the May election," said the judge, adding that the ruling "doesn't invalidate all the decisions made by the presidency before the ruling."
As it is, Chilima, who was the first petitioner in the case challenging Mutharika's victory, remains Mutharika's vice president until the fresh election is conducted.
