Malawi øverste retsinstans har afvist et dekret fra præsident Joyce Banda, hvor hun erklærer tirsdagens valg i det sydlige Afrikas fattigste nation for ugyldigt – foreløbige optællinger viser, at hun stod til at tabe i det femte valg siden demokratiets genindførelse for 20 år siden.
Ms Banda stated that the vote had been marred by rigging (svindel), multiple voting and computer-hacking, BBC online reports Saturday.
She said a new vote should be held within 90 days but she would not stand again in any new poll.
However, the head of the electoral commission said the president did not have the power to annul the vote.
The High Court made its ruling after the commission said that despite problems involving the electronic count the poll remained valid and vote-counting would go on.
Malawi’s election was chaotic, with some people voting two days on from election day because of delays in distributing polling material.
Frustrated voters set one polling station alight and smashed election material at another. In some places, voting boxes or lids did not arrive so officials used buckets and plastic wrap.
Late on Friday, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) said Joyce Banda’s rival candidate Peter Mutharika had taken a lead of 42 per cent, with 30 per cent of votes counted. Ms Banda was in second place with 23 per cent, the commission said.
Mrs Banda had previously accused a party, which she did not name, of infiltrating and hacking the MEC’s counting system.
The MEC’s chairman denied that its system had been hacked.
This was the first time that Malawi held presidential, parliamentary and local elections on the same day.
