Who stole the vote?

Except where she made a wrong call and attempted to annul the elections, President Joyce Banda has largely been vindicated that there was just something catastrophically wrong in these polls that the will of the people was almost in jeopardy.

There were simply widespread irregularities (MEC received 275 complaints) in the elections that you  wonder whether MEC retained control of anything or what we went through was free-for-all election jamboree for evil plotters and thieves hell-bent on thwarting the will of the people to get power for their own selfish ends.

This MEC owes Malawians an explanation for these grossly mismanaged elections we have never seen since the dawn of multiparty dispensation in 1994.

For instance, how can MEC explain the discrepancy in Machinga North East where 77 556 votes registered but the count form shows that 184 223 voters polled? Where did the other 106 667 voters come from as MCP has asked in its complaint to MEC?

What about in instances where one party signed for the results? Can they be authentic? And then you have one person—John J. Banda signing results for DPP in Mangochi North East, Mangochi Monkey Bay, and Mangochi Central. How can this happen? Was he a roving monitor for the party?

You also have certain constituencies such as Blantyre Rural where the tally sheet for the presidential elections result was not signed by any party representative.

I have just sampled these from the many in a thick dossier littered with one electoral complaint after another that leaves you stunned at the magnitude of the fraud.

A case has been made that the only election that was free and fair where the will of the people was not tampered with was in 1994 and MEC was then headed by Chief Justice Anastasia Msosa. The rest in 1999, 2004 and 2009, so goes the assertion, were rigged.

Claims of rigging in the 2004 elections which brought the late Bingu wa Mutharika to power by people such as the late Dumbo Lemani render credence to view that the will of the people has always been thwarted in this country and that perhaps this time, the thieves crossed the line and then took it too far.

With this state of affairs, you would think that all politicians would support MEC for a thorough clean up job to clear the mess so that the will of Malawians is no longer compromised with.

Yet what we saw this week is different and left some of us mouths agape. We heard of injunctions and counter-injunctions being milled out, stopping or allowing the vote recount, depending on which horde of fancy lawyers was ascending or descending the steps of the High Court.

Politicians always preach to us that theirs is a public service to Malawians when they are asking us for our vote. This is very noble but when you see the overzealousness to get the results at all costs even when the due process was not over, you are not stupid to fail to see the insincerity of this statement.

I mean, if this is true, why not wait peacefully and allow the process to run its course without resorting to force of show through a horde of expensive lawyers?

I hope when all this is wrapped up, MEC will endeavour to be straight with the Malawian people and reveal all the shenanigans behind this electoral fiasco. Somebody simply wanted to steal this election and Malawians have the right to know who did this and how they infiltrated the system to achieve this daylight heist in our midst.

As for Joyce Banda, she has already conceded defeat, in my view, by saying she would not run in any polls that were to be held due to the present fiasco. What should matter to her now is her legacy, I suppose.

But the fundamental question as to who attempted to steal our vote remains and MEC has to address it.