The recently held plebiscite in Malawi is under scrutiny following irregularities, which marred the presidential election.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) challenged the presidential
results raising issues of ballot stuffing among other pertinent issues and the court has asked the Malawi Election
Commission to withhold results until all those issues have been addressed.
Reports coming from Malawi indicate that the government has deployed the army to thwart demonstrations which are currently taking place in urban areas of Malawi.
Political analysts have suggested that if Malawi is not careful, the country will end up in a legitimacy crisis that has potential to degenerate into chaos.
Already reports indicate that in Area 23 , Lilongwe there has been demonstrations in the streets where MCP supporters claimed that Lazarus Chakwera had won the hotly contested election.
“What is happening in Malawi is not new to Africa and we all know where this will lead to, it is very unfortunate that Africa is still doing such kind of politics, my fear is that this will lead to a legitimacy crisis which will take long to deal with,” said Daniel Mlambo a political Analyst.
Mlambo’s sentiments were also echoed by Peter Mtewa who said that African leaders should not play with people’s hearts and emotions.
“African leaders should not play with our emotions,
what is happening in Malawi should be
addressed as a matter of emergence as this will definitely lead to a
legitimacy crisis,” said Mtetwa.
The last official results MEC released after counting votes from 75% of polling stations indicated that Peter Mutharika was leading with 40.9% while Lazarus Chakwara of the MCP had 35.4% of the vote.
