Malawian Elections

Malawians go to the polls for a presidential rerun election on Tuesday 23 June with strong indications that President Peter Mutharika should be defeated by his main challenger Lazarus Chakwera – in a free and fair election. But lingering doubts remain about whether Mutharika will allow that to happen.

In a historic decision in February 2020, Malawi’s High Court, sitting as the Constitutional Court, annulled the elections because of extensive vote-rigging, including blatant use of Tippex correction fluid to delete votes on the ballot for opposition candidates and replace them with votes for Mutharika.

The holding of the elections under coronavirus restrictions with no outside observers has also raised concerns, especially after the original election was rigged. After the courts annulled his victory in the elections in May last year and ordered Tuesday’s rerun, Mutharika has done his best to avoid facing the electorate again. And some observers wonder if he will still try to “throw another spanner in the works”, though they said on Monday it now seemed too late for him to do that.

To help us unpack all these we are joined by:

• Victor Chipofya is an analyst
• Undule Mwakasungula is n governance and human rights activist/ consultant