Malawi presidential election 2020

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The 2020 presidential election in Malawi took place on June 23. With an absolute majority of the votes, Lazarus Chakwera won and took over the office of President of Malawi on June 28, 2020.

The 2019 presidential election , won by incumbent Peter Mutharika , was declared invalid on February 3, 2020. It was the second time in African history , following the presidential election in Kenya in 2017 , that a nationwide election had been repeated based on a court order. The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) was responsible for organizing the election. In this election, the absolute majority of the votes decided for the first time.

Registration and polling stations

In 2019, 6,859,570 Malawians were registered for the election. There were 5002 polling stations. These numbers were also given for the re-election.

prehistory

According to the election commission, Mutharika ( Democratic Progressive Party , DPP) won the 2019 election with around 39% of the vote. His biggest competitor Lazarus Chakwera ( Malawi Congress Party , MCP) had received 35%, Saulos Chilima ( United Transformation Movement , UTM) around 20%. According to the electoral law at the time , Mutharika remained president. This triggered months of unrest. On February 3, 2020, the Malawian Constitutional Court declared the result of the presidential election invalid and ordered a new vote within 150 days. Serious irregularities, such as the "significant" use of correction fluid, were given as the reason. According to the court decision, the re-election should be decided differently than the invalid election in a runoff election if no candidate has received an absolute majority . In addition, the court ordered that in the repeat election only candidates who had already stood for election in 2019 may run.

In the run-up to the election, seven opposition parties, led by MCP, UTM and People's Party , came together on March 19, 2020 to form the Tonse Alliance ; by election day there were nine parties.

The date of the vote was set for May 19, 2020, then July 2 and finally June 23, so that the 150-day deadline could be met.

The vote took place during the COVID-19 pandemic . Despite warnings from the MEC, whose leadership was changed in early June, rallies were held at which hygiene rules were disregarded. At the time of the election, there were around 800 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Malawi.

Electoral process

In the case of no absolute majority, a runoff election should decide.

Candidates

Incumbent Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ran again, his vice-presidential candidate was his former opponent Atupele Muluzi ( United Democratic Front , UDF). Lazarus Chakwera from the MCP with the vice-presidential candidate Saulos Chilima (UTM) was the candidate of the opposition alliance. The third candidate was Peter Kuwani from the Mbakuwaku Movement for Development (MMD), who ran with Archibald Kalawang'oma.

procedure

National election observers praised the smooth organization, including the implementation of the hygiene measures.

Result

With 58% of the vote, Lazarus Chakwera won the election and took over the office of President on June 28, 2020.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Opositionskandidat Chakwera wins presidential election. In: deutschlandfunk.de. June 28, 2020, accessed June 29, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Martin Ronceray: First Kenya, now Malawi: The challenge-annul-rerun pattern in African elections. ecdpm.org of February 17, 2020 (English), accessed June 22, 2020.
  3. ^ Elections. mec.org.mw, accessed on May 28, 2019.
  4. ↑ Results fpe2020.com of June 25, 2020 (English), accessed on June 25, 2020
  5. ↑ Malawi top court annuls presidential election results. aljazeera.com dated February 3, 2020, accessed on February 3, 2020.
  6. ↑ Malawi court throws out Mutharika poll challenge. africanews.com of May 11, 2020, accessed on May 11, 2020.
  7. ↑ In virus-free Malawi thousands attend opposition alliance announcement. africanews.com, March 19, 2020, accessed June 22, 2020.
  8. ↑ Wongani Chiuta: DPP's Chimunthu Banda endorses Tonse Alliance: 'Chakwera and Chilima good for Malawi' . nyasatimes.com, June 18, 2030, accessed June 22, 2020.
  9. ↑ Covid-10 doesn't keep Malawians away from historic election. ewn.co.za on June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020
  10. ↑ Malawi election body sets July 2 for rerun of annulled poll. africanews.com, March 24, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020.
  11. ↑ Malawi: Campaign rallies begin in Lilongwe and Mzuzu. garda.com of May 10, 2020 (English), accessed on June 23, 2020.
  12. ↑ Johns Hopkins University : COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). coronavirus-jhu.edu of June 23, 2020 (English), accessed on June 23, 2020.
  13. ↑ Malawi repeated canceled presidential elections. evangelisch.de of June 22, 2020, accessed on June 22, 2020.
  14. ↑ Malawians vote in crucial presidential poll re-run despite virus. africanews.com, June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020
  15. ↑ Opositionskandidat Chakwera wins presidential election. In: deutschlandfunk.de. June 28, 2020, accessed June 29, 2020 .