President Peter Mutharika will stay in power until then.

The Constitutional Court found there had been widespread irregularities in Malawi’s Presidential election last year.

Peter Mutharika won a second term in that poll with a margin of 160 000 votes.

Second placed Lazarus Chakwere maintains he won.

Third placed Saulos Chilima also cried foul.

The annulment is the second in African history.

Kenya’s Supreme Court, citing irregularities,  annulled the August 2017 election won by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

It ordered the appointment of a new electoral commission.

Kenyatta won the re-run in October after his main opponent Raila Odinga withdrew.

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The result was released last night after the High Court lifted an injunction imposed after it received 147 complaints of irregularities

Lazarus Chakwera, who’s Malawi Congress Party made most of the allegations of electoral fraud,  was yet again beaten into second place by Peter Mutharika.

Chakwera, who won 35,4% of the vote, was runner up in 2014.

Former Deputy President Saulos Chilima won 20 percent of the vote.

This was the closest-fought presidential election in Malawi’s democratic history. 

In addition to dealing with burgeoning economic challenges, the 78-year-old president has to ward off charges of corruption and of favouring those regions which most strongly support him.

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Police in armored vehicles are dealing with angry crowds stoning government buildings in the capital Lilongwe.

The main opposition Malawi Congress Party has recorded 147 complaints in 10 of the country’s 28 voting districts.

Lazarus Chakwera says correction fluid, better known as tippex, has been used to alter  counting sheets. The same handwriting has been found on results from polling stations several kilometers apart.

Chakwera had won 35-and-a-half percent of votes after three-quarters were tallied at the electoral commission results centre. This left him trailing incumbent Peter Mutharika who has 50%.

Vice President Saulos Chilima  is a distant 18%.

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The election currently underway in Malawi perfectly illustrates the generational battle in African politics.

Peter Mutharika, vying for a second and final term as President, has a record of achievement to show voters.

He’s brought down inflation this past five years from 14% to 9%.

He is promising the people of one Africa’s poorest countries that Malawi is going  the way of Singapore or Malaysia.

This is somewhat hyperbolic given that more than half the nearly 19-million Malawians live under the poverty line.

Food shortages dog daily life and the 11% of the population with electricity suffer frequent power outages.

Mutharika’s image has been further dented by his having to return a $200 000 campaign donation from a businessman implicated in a $3-million scam involving the contract for supplying food to the police force.

There are seven faces on the presidential ballot paper competing for the votes of seven million electors.

Mutharika’s main rival is his former hand-picked  vice president Saulos Chilima who broke with him last year when it became clear he was running for a second term.

The incumbent, who is a former law professor, is 78 years old.

His sister-in-law Callista, widow of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika, is among those who have advised him that he has passed his sell-by date.

This is a telling argument with more than half of the electorate younger than 35 years.

Former telecoms executive Chilima is 46.

The third frontrunner is former Lazarus Chakwera who ran second to Mutharika in 2014.

He has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress  Party  and secured the endorsement of former President Joyce Banda. Chakwera is 64.

Age has been a determining factor in a number of recent African political contests.

In South Africa, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane, both 38, made much of the fact they were running against 66-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is going to extraordinary and unconstitutional lengths  to ward off the challenge of Pop-singer-turned MP Bobi Wine, who is 37.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, had his work cut keeping 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa at bay.

Two African presidents have fallen to popular protest this year.

In Sudan, Omar Al Bashir is 75.

Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 82. 

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This will make for an exciting contest between President Peter Mutharika, his vice president Saulos Chilima and the man he beat in 2014, Lazarus Chakwera. Results are expected within eight days.

Voting in Malawi’s most keenly contested presidential and parliament elections to date has been peaceful despite some hitches.

Contender Saulos Chilima has to wait 40 minutes to cast his ballot because of confusion over which voting station he should have used.

Malawi’s presidential election is winner-take-all affair. There is no provision for a run off

In 2014 Peter Mutharika won with 36.4%of the vote off a 70% turnout.

Observers are saying the numbers will be even higher this time round. 

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Organizers fear that the race for the top job is being so closely contested they might regret not having  made provision for a run-off poll.

Incumbent Peter Mutharika, seeking a second and final presidential term, is being challenged by his hand-picked deputy Saulos Chilima who is getting traction with his strong anti corruption stance.

Lazarus Chakera has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress Party to take up the cudgels as another front runner.

He has the endorsement of  former President  Joyce Banda, who stepped out of the race to back an opponents of Mutharika who trounced her in 2014 and forced her into exile to escape corruption charges.

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