DPP claims VP rigging

As voting in Mzimba Central and South West constituencies continued on Tuesday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused Malawi’s Vice-President Khumbo Kachali of influencing voters on the polling day.

DPP regional governor for the North, Reverend Christopher Ngwira, claimed Kachali, who is also Malawi’s ruling People’s Party (PP) vice-president (Operations), slaughtered two cows for voters and distributed money to people at polling centres.

But Kachali’s aide Kondwani Munthali refuted the allegations, claiming Ngwira was only trying to justify his failure in the by-elections to his masters.

Malawi Electoral Commission’s Archbishop Bernard Malango said he had not heard about the complaints despite Ngwira claiming that he reported the matter to the electoral body.

“What I know is that he went to Edingeni and voted. From there, he left but on reports that he was moving in polling centres is not true,” said the retired Archbishop to whom EC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa had referred the matter.

Ngwira claimed Kachali visited the two constituencies to influence voters.

“This is rigging of the highest order and the results will not be fair,” said Ngwira.

Munthali said Kachali left Lilongwe for Edingeni to vote. He said after voting, he spent a few minutes at his Edingeni residence and went straight to Mzimba Boma.

Kachali and his wife arrived at the Edingeni polling centre at around 9.30am to vote. He walked from his house to the polling centre which is just a few metres away.

The turn-out was good in most polling centres and people started voting as early as 6am. There were no reported incidents of violence.