Opposition’s Lazarus Chakwera wins Malawi presidential re-run elections
By Kemi Kasumu
Five years after Muhammadu Buhari unseated incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in a keenly contested election in Nigeria, the black race of Africa has another smiling face of history in Malawi on Tuesday June 23, 2020.
This was when opposition Tonse Alliance’s Lazarus Chakwera slogged it out in a re-run election with the incumbent President Peter Mutharika of the DPP/UDF alliance and defeated him.
Announcing the results of the polls late Saturday June 27, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared Chakwera as winner of the presidential re-run polls.
MEC chairperson, Justice Chifundo Kachale, announced that Chakwera, leader of the Tonse Alliance bagged 2,604,043 votes, representing 58.5 percent of the total votes cast.
Outgoing President Peter Mutharika of the DPP/UDF Alliance came second with 1,751,877 votes. The third candidate Mbakuwaku Movement for Development candidate Peter Kuwani managed 33,456 votes.
Out of the 6,859,570 registered voters, 4,445,699 cast their votes. The Commission recorded 57,323 null and void votes, representing 1.29 percent. The commission received and resolved 10 complaints from all three participating sides, according media reports.
