Malawi’s High Court has rejected a decision by President Joyce Banda to annul this week’s general election – in which she was a candidate.<\/p>\n
Ms Banda had earlier said Tuesday’s vote had been marred by rigging, multiple voting and computer-hacking.<\/p>\n
She said a new vote should be held within 90 days but she would not stand again in any new poll.<\/p>\n
However, the head of the electoral commission said the president did not have the power to annul the vote.<\/p>\n
The High Court made its ruling after the commission said that despite problems involving the electronic count the poll remained valid and vote-counting would go on.<\/p>\n
Malawi’s election was chaotic, with one BBC correspondent reporting people voting two days on from election day because of delays in distributing polling material.<\/p>\n
Frustrated voters set one polling station alight and smashed election material at another.<\/p>\n
In some places, voting boxes or lids did not arrive so officials used buckets and plastic wrap.<\/p>\n
Late on Friday, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) said Joyce Banda’s rival candidate Peter Mutharika had taken a lead of 42%, with 30% of votes counted. Ms Banda was in second place with 23%, the commission said.<\/p>\n
“I am nullifying the elections, using the powers invested in me by the Malawi constitution,” Ms Banda told a news conference.<\/p>\n
“I want to give Malawians an opportunity to choose a candidate of their choice in a free and fair manner. When elections are to be held again, I will be stepping aside,” she added.<\/p>\n
Mrs Banda had previously accused a party, which she did not name, of infiltrating and hacking the MEC’s counting system.<\/p>\n
The MEC’s chairman denied that its system had been hacked.<\/p>\n
In a previous statement about the elections, Mrs Banda had said that irregularities included<\/p>\n
Around 7.5 million people were eligible to vote in the fifth elections since the end of one-party rule 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
This was the first time that Malawi held presidential, parliamentary and local elections on the same day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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