Malawi’s faith leaders comprising Muslims and Christians on Thursday said that the just-ended general elections that gave victory to incumbent President Peter Mutharika were not credible.
“In our point of view the results management system was a flop” the religious leaders, grouped under the Public Affairs Committee, or PAC told a press conference convened to comment on the controversial elections, whose conclusion is still being pursued in court by losing opposition candidate Lazarus Chakwera.
Accusing the MEC of “glaring misconduct” PAC claimed that officials on the ground changed results figures on ballot papers, using tippex to rub off figures and rewrite them, as unacceptable.
They noted that this anomaly was brought to the attention of the MEC chair, who acknowledged that her officials were not officially given tippex – a solution for erasing words or figures and write over it again on paper – but she failed to explain where the officials obtained this piece of office equipment, let alone stop them from carrying on the malpractice.
“MEC has failed to give truth and justice to the elections,” Catholic Father Peter Mlomole, a PAC member, told journalists during the briefing.
PAC, however, commended the opposition leader for pursuing the matter in court for the sake of keeping the peace in the country.
The MEC have declined to comment on PAC’s allegations, saying all queries pertaining to the polls were solved before Ansah announced the final results.
NM/as/APA