Chakwera vindicated: MEC registering more ballots than registered in some districts where DPP is winning

Claims made by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera that some areas are having more ballots than registered people have been established to be true.

Reports have shown that some places have registered more number of ballots cast than the actual number of registered voters.

A whistleblower shared on Facebook figures for Karonga where the number of registered voters is 146,587 but number of votes cast is 200,669.

There is also a similar case in Rumphi where 96,753 people registered but votes cast are 262,790.

In Mzimba, number of registered people is 478,435 but 705,983 votes were cast while in Nkhatabay 106,731 voters registered but the total for presidential candidates of the three major parties is 146,874.

Images shared on social media also showed that poll workers used tippex to change figures on some official forms.

Another whistleblower and social commentator also shared hinting at votes beings being manipulated.
At a press briefing this afternoon, MEC chairperson Jane Ansah confirmed that cases of result tampering have been recorded.

She said two polling staff in Mangochi were arrested yesterday for trying to manipulate results.

“We’ve also received of fraud involving tampering with results in Lilongwe, Phalombe, Mulanje, Nsanje,” she said.

Other commentators believe this could only have been possible in these areas, especially where the ruling DPP is winning, if pre-marked ballots were dropped in these centres. It is also feared that some returning officers are changing the figures to suit their preferred presidential candidates.

Malawi24 could not independently verify who the culprits or to whose benefit these irregularities that only points to rigging are.

Similar irregularities also happened in 2014 when the sitting president, Joyce Banda, complained that the opposition DPP had rigged the elections – a first of its kind as the common trend is that ruling parties rig.

The outgoing vice president, Saulos Chilima, vindicated Joyce Banda when he claimed that ex-minister of homeland, Nicholas Dausi, torched MEC warehouse to avoid a manual audit of ballot papers which could have revealed the extent of the alleged rigging scheme.