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Election results challenged

    JOHANNESBURG

    The Malawi High Court in Lilongwe will on Friday hear a suit filed by Malawi’s opposition parties challenging the result of the 15 June polls won by incumbent President Bakili Muluzi. The opposition is asking the court to annul the results, claiming they were rigged by Muluzi’s United Democratic Front (UDF) party.

    Michael Bazuk Mhango, lawyer for the opposition said: “The Malawi Electoral Commission erroneously declared President Bakili Muluzi the winner based on a section of the law which is inconsistent with the Constitution which calls for the winner to amass 50 percent of the total number of registered voters.”
    The ruling UDF won 93 seats, while the opposition parties, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), have 95 seats between them in the country’s 193-member Parliament. Meanwhile, only 16 women were elected to parliament, scoring only an eight percent representation in the assembly, PANA reported on Thursday.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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