MCP, PP lodge complaints

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) on Wednesday received formal complaints from Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and People’s Party (PP) on misgivings with the processing of results of the tripartite elections whose voting started on Tuesday.

Chief elections officer Willie Kalonga confirmed the development in an interview yesterday, saying MCP is alleging hacking of the electronic voter transmission system, while PP was questioning disparities in figures in a couple of areas.

“The MCP is alleging that our system has crashed because the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] has hacked into it. As far as we are concerned, there is no evidence to this allegation. What we have been told by our experts is simply that the system was overwhelmed,” he explained.

DPP presidential candidate, Peter Mutharika, described the allegations “as nonsense.”

“We are not desperate to rig an election, which we are winning. Let MEC release the results and you will see this clearly,” said Mutharika.

Kalonga also said PP were alleging that in some places there were disparities in figures between votes cast for the president and those for a member of Parliament.

PP spokesperson Ken Msonda confirmed making the complaint to MEC, saying the pattern was suspicious.

“For instance, in Zomba Malosa at one centre Roy Kachale got 5 000 votes as a parliamentary candidate, but our presidential candidate got about 2 000 votes. Do you think people would vote for a child and reject his mother?” questioned Msonda.

Kalonga said MEC will investigate the allegations and respond accordingly.

Meanwhile, Kalonga said at a late night press conference yesterday that voting will be finalised today at three polling centres—two in Blantyre and one in Lilongwe.