MUTHARIKA WINS ELECTIONS; OPPOSITION CONTESTS

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000438 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM PINR PHUM MI SUBJECT: MUTHARIKA WINS ELECTIONS; OPPOSITION CONTESTS RESULTS REF: A. 03 LILONGWE 1202 ¶B. LILONGWE 404 ¶C. LILONGWE 434 ¶1. (U) After 69 hours of counting, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) announced on May 23 the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections. Of the 5.7 million registered voters, MEC reports that 3.1 million voted (54.3%). The inauguration is scheduled for the morning of May 24. Post's assessment of the elections will follow septel. ¶2. (U) Results of the presidential election are as follows: Bingu wa Mutharika - United Democratic Front (UDF): 1,119,738 (35.9%) John Tembo - Malawi Congress Party (MCP): 846,457 (27.1%) Gwanda Chakuamba - Mgwirizano Coalition/Republican Party (RP): 802,386 (25.7%) Brown Mpinganjira - National Democratic Alliance (NDA): 272,172 (8.7%) Justin Malewezi - Independent: 78,892 (2.5%) ¶3. (U) In the parliamentary elections, nine political parties and 38 independents won seats in the National Assembly. The MCP has a plurality with 59 seats. The UDF, the former leading party in the house, won 49 seats. Women won in 27 parliamentary districts. The numbers of seats by party is as follows: Malawi Congress Party (MCP): 59 United Democratic Front (UDF): 49 Republican Party (RP): 16 National Democratic Alliance (NDA): 8 Alliance for Democracy (AFORD): 6 People's Progressive Movement (PPM): 6 Movement for Genuine Democratic Change (MGODE): 3 People's Transformation Party (PETRA): 1 Congress for National Unity (CONU): 1 Independents: 38 (NOTE: For various reasons, parliamentary elections were not conducted in six parliamentary districts. MEC will conduct by-elections in these constituencies.) ¶4. (SBU) According to sources in MEC, the official results were tabulated based on "unclean data," which had been received from District Officers with arithmetic errors. After internal arguments, MEC reportedly decided to go ahead and announce the results to allow inauguration preparations to continue and to fulfill its legal mandate to produce results within 72 hours after the polls closed. MEC reportedly plans to release final results after it has had time to "clean" the data. ¶5. (U) Leader of the opposition Coalition Gwanda Chakuamba has come out strongly against the results, signaling that he will contest the election results both politically and legally. COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (SBU) MEC's handling of the tally process and release of results based on "unclean" data will certainly lead to a court challenge of the UDF's victory. Both the Mgwirizano Coalition and MCP have announced their intention to seek legal redress for various "irregularities" in the electoral process. DOUGHERTY