RUSTENBURG - Malawi President Peter Mutharika has lost an appeal against the presidential election, Malawi media reported on Friday.
News website Malawi24, reported that the Supreme Court of Appeals in Lilongwe has upheld Constitutional Court ruling that Mutharika was not duly elected in the 2019 elections and that fresh presidential polls should be held.
Mutharika and Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) were challenging the Constitutional Court ruling which nullified 21 May, 2019 presidential elections.
The Constitutional Court ordered on 3 February that fresh presidential election should be held after it found that the 21 May elections had several irregularities.
Vice president Saulos Chilima and Malawi Congress Party President Lazarus Chakwera challenged the outcome of the results in court citing irregularities during the elections.
In the ruling, the Supreme Court described irregularities in the last year’s elections as not only serious but also troubling saying they affected the outcome of the presidential elections.
The court ordered the Malawi Electoral Comission (MEC) to use the voters’ rolls which was used in last year’s election and that there should not be any registration of new voters since the new ones were not wronged.
The court further ruled that ordered that only presidential candidates who contested in last year’s elections were eligible to stand in the fresh election.
The fresh presidential elections will be held on July 2 this year.
The publication reported that Mutharika said the fresh elections were not what people in Malawi wanted.
He said Malawians voted in an election which was free, fair, peaceful, transparent and credible as said by international observers.Daily newspaper the Nation reported that the electoral body provisionally confirmed three candidates at the close of nomination papers submission on Thursday.
MEC chairperson Jane Ansah received nomination papers from Mutharika and two other presidential candidates, which it will scrutinise before it can declare their eligibility to stand.
The candidates are Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera leading a nine-party Tonse Alliance, Mbakuwaku Movement for Development president Peter Kuwani and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Peter Mutharika.
The daily reported that in total, there were 13 nomination forms collected with nine filled.