Mzuzu-(MaraviPost)—Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says it has withheld the announcement of the official results of the by elections held in Karonga Central, Lilongwe North West Constituencies and Makhuwira Ward in Chikhwawa District up until thirteen original tally sheets are submitted to the main tally centre as per legal requirement.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, MEC’s Director of Media and Communication, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, said about thirteen original tally sheets from both Lilongwe North West and Karonga Central Constituencies have not yet been submitted to the Commission and so the institution is tongue tied to announce the official results.
“The Commission sat to look into these documents. So, in the course of looking into these documents, the Commission was examining each and every result sheet received from the polling stations. So, in the course, we discovered that for Lilongwe, we did not get ten original results sheets and in Karonga, we did not get three original results sheets. So, in compliance with the law, the Commission has sent teams to go and retrieve the original results sheets and bring them to the main tally centre,” said Mwafulirwa.
However, Mwafulirwa was quick to disclose that one of the candidates in Karonga Central Constituency, Frank Tumpale Mwenefumbo of UTM, has lodged a complaint that the polls in the constituency were not free, fair and credible.
He said the Commission has received the complaint from the candidate and it will look into it before announcing official results.
As of yesterday, unofficial results indicated that Leonard Mwalwanda of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was the one leading with 6,753 votes with Frank Tumpale Mwenefumbo trailing him with 6, 021 votes; while Enerst Mwaluwali of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had 99 votes, Florence Nthakomwa, independent, got 89 votes and Nellie Sichali of Mbakuwaku Movement for Development (MMD) amassed 13 votes.
About 13, 027 voters in Karonga Central Constituency went to polls on November 10, 2020.
