Riots break out over 'rigged' Malawi election

Opposition supporters rampaged through Malawi’s streets after electoral officials declared President Bakili Muluzi’s designated successor the winner of the impoverished southern African country’s third multi-party elections.

The seven-party Mgwirizano coalition protested that Thursday’s vote was rigged and maintained its leader was the rightful winner.

Hundreds of coalition supporters poured into the streets yesterday in Blantyre’s crowded suburbs, erecting barricades and setting fire to a local office of the ruling United Democratic Front party. A petrol station and at least two other UDF offices were also looted in the frenzy.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Security was high in the city centre, and streets were deserted.

Muluzi, Malawi’s first democratically elected leader, hand-picked Bingu wa Mutharika, his economic planning minister, to succeed him after he failed in efforts to alter the constitution to allow himself a third five-year term.

The ruling party’s candidate, wa Mutharika, received 35% of the vote, compared to 27% for John Tembo of the opposition Malawi Congress Party, according to results announced by the Malawi Electoral Commission.

Gwanda Chakuamba, who heads the Mgwirizano coalition, took just under 26% of the vote, while two other candidates trailed with less than 9% apiece.

However, the ruling party failed to retain its parliamentary majority, picking up just 49 of the National Assembly’s 193 seats, electoral officials said.

The Malawi Congress Party won 60 seats, the Mgwirizano coalition had 28, and independent candidates took 38. A number of smaller parties accounted for the remaining seats decided on Thursday.

Parliamentary voting was postponed in six districts because of errors on the ballot papers.

The announcement of wa Mutharika’s victory came after Chakuamba complained of delays in releasing the results. Chakuamba accused the Malawi Electoral Commission of colluding with the ruling party to rig the results and declared himself the winner on Saturday.

“I will sacrifice my life, but I can’t let these people steal the people’s will,” Chakuamba said after the results were announced yesterday.

The coalition would use all available means – legal and political – to protest against the result, said its general secretary, Ian Nankhuni. He did not elaborate.

Chief electoral officer Roosevelt Gondwe denied any vote tampering, saying it had taken time to verify the count. Ruling party officials also insisted the vote was free and fair.

While voting took place peacefully on Thursday, frustration at the delay in releasing results boiled over into the streets of the economic centre, Blantyre, on Saturday. Protests also occurred in the capital, Lilongwe, and the northern city of Mzuzu.

Thursday’s vote was marred by irregularities before it even started. Balloting was postponed by two days after the Mgwirizano coalition protested to the High Court that the voters roll had not been published for verification. It claimed hundreds of thousands of names were missing from the list.

Just 3.1 million of the 5.7 million registered voters cast ballots in the presidential poll, electoral officials said yesterday.

International observers, who gave the vote a partial endorsement, also noted problems during campaigning.

For almost 30 years, the landlocked country, one of the world’s poorest, was governed as an absolute dictatorship by self-proclaimed president-for-life Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Thousands of political opponents were jailed, tortured or killed while Banda amassed a fortune.

Under pressure from Western aid donors, he was removed in the first multi-party elections in 1994.

Muluzi’s reign brought greater freedom, human rights guarantees and new political parties. But despite promises to fight poverty, more than half of the 12 million population survive on less than 90c a day.