Malawi’s top court to rule on presidential poll

Bloomberg

Claims by Malawi’s opposition that last year’s election that returned President Peter Mutharika to power was rigged should be decided upon on Monday when the nation’s top court is due to rule on whether to annul the vote.
The electoral commission declared Mutharika, the leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the winner of the May 21 ballot with 38.6% support in the first-past-the-post race.
The main opposition Malawi Congress Party, whose leader Lazarus Chakwera was said to have secured 35.4% backing, alleged that ballot papers were altered to change the outcome and filed a lawsuit to have it overturned.
The dispute has sparked violent demonstrations in the normally peaceful southern African nation. A child and a police officer died and businesses and vehicles were torched. Jane Ansah, the chairwoman of the Electoral Commission, has faced calls from the opposition to quit.
Unrest is likely to intensify unless the court calls for a new vote, according to George Phiri, a political scientist at the University of Livingstonia in the northern city of Mzuzu.