Malawi’s constitutional court on Monday annulled the May 2019 presidential vote that declared Peter Mutharika a winner and ordered a re-run after an application from opposition parties citing irregularities.
Mutharika, Malawi president since 2014, won the election with a 38.57% share of the vote, with opposition party leader Lazarus Chakwera getting 35.41% and deputy president Saulos Chilima, who formed his own party, had 20.24% in the final tally.
The electoral commission declared Mutharika the winner despite complaints of irregularities including results sheets with sections blotted out or altered with correction fluid.
Mutharika had pledged to crack down on corruption and revive the economy in his second five-year term.
But Chakwera, the president’s main rival, and Chilima rejected the results and filed a petition to the high court asking it to nullify the results.
In a unanimous decision, a panel of five judges ordered that a new presidential vote be held within 150 days.
