Malawi President Peter Mutharika, fighting for his political life against six other presidential hopefuls – including his own vice president Saulos Chilima — led the country’s 6.8 million-plus voters to cast their votes in tripartite election on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters after he voted in his home district of Thyolo in southern Malawi, the Malawi leader, aged 75, urged his compatriots “to come out and vote in large numbers.”
One of those who heeded this call was Chilima, the underling who left his boss’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and government to wage a strong campaign against the president.
The vice president arrived at his voting station in the capital Lilongwe to find that his name was not in the registry to enable him cast his vote.
Following Chilima’s complaint to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) officials on the scene, the junior officials had to obtain permission from senior officials to enable the rebel vice president to finally cast his vote.
Clearly disturbed over the incident, Chilima said he was “impressed by the voter turnout.”
“We should continue to preach peace. There can only be one winner, and everybody must accept the results,” the 46-year-old candidate said.
Upon investigation of the Chilima incident, MEC Chair Jane Ansah said the vice president’s voting form was illegally transferred to the remote Likoma Island of Lake Malawi – which is a district closer to Mozambique than to this country, thanks to the wisdom of European colonial history.
Investigations are underway to find out the motive behind the apprehended MEC official’s action to remove Chilima’s name from the registry and place it on the Likoma Island’s voting station – even though the VP did not request the transfer.
Some 5,002 voting stations nationwide are processing votes to elect presidential hopefuls Mutharika of the DPP, Chilima of the United Transformation Movement, Malawi Congress Party’s Lazarus Chakwera, Atupele Muluzi of the United Democratic Front and three other candidates whose smaller parties have little chance of ever winning the presidency in the current campaign.
Apart from the presidency, the voters are also electing members of parliament and councillors for local government wards. Polling ends at 1600 GMT, some 12 hours after the voting opened nationwide.
Independent observers from the African Union, the Commonwealth, the European Union, and a locally based United States diplomat have pronounced the polls as taking place in peaceful atmosphere.
MEC chair Ansah, a justice of the Malawi Supreme Court, also confirmed this development when she briefed reporters soon after the polls’ opening in Blantyre.
NM/jn/APA