MALAWI: High court removes injunction against electoral commission

A high court in Malawi on Monday removed an injunction against the country's electoral commission, allowing it to receive nomination papers from candidates ahead of general elections in
May.

"It is business as usual for the commission. Everybody is waiting to see what the opposition's response will be," an independent media source in the commercial capital Blantyre told IRIN.

He said that the general feeling in Malawi was that the commission had "failed to do its job," and there were doubts over its impartiality. He said these concerns stemmed from, among other reasons, that announcements about the 25 May election were coming first from the office of the
president rather than the electoral body.

"The commission is supposed to be independent but is not acting like that," he said.

Opposition parties applied for an injunction against the commission to stop it from receiving nomination papers on the basis that the registration process in March was allegedly flawed, and the irregularities would not allow for a free and fair election.

Local analysts told IRIN that commission members were divided over the issue of whether or not the country was ready for the election and that at least half the members favoured delaying the polling date.

President Bakili Muluzi of the ruling United Democratic Front defeated former dictator Kamuzu Banda in the country's first democratic election in 1994.