{"id":20599,"date":"2014-05-24T15:21:15","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=20599"},"modified":"2014-05-24T15:21:15","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T15:21:15","slug":"malawian-president-joyce-banda-annuls-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/malawian-president-joyce-banda-annuls-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawian President Joyce Banda ‘annuls election’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Malawi’s President Joyce Banda says she is annulling this week’s general election – in which she was a candidate – because of voting “irregularities”.<\/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
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
The president of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), Maxon Mbendera. said despite problems involving the electronic count, the poll remained valid and vote-counting would go on.<\/p>\n
Late on Friday, the 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
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi’s President Joyce Banda says she is annulling this week’s general election – in which she was a candidate – because of voting “irregularities”. Ms Banda had earlier said Tuesday’s vote had been marred by rigging, multiple voting and computer-hacking. She said a new vote should be held within 90 days but she would not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":20600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[929,14,993],"yoast_head":"\n