International observers monitoring Tuesday’s elections in Malawi have expressed satisfaction with the way the parliamentary and presidential polls were conducted.
Addressing the media in the country’s commercial capital Blantyre on Thursday morning the various groups of the observers say the elections were free and fair despite a few shortcomings observed.
"The voting process across the country was conducted in a peace and tranquility environment," said former Ghanaian President John Kufuor, who is leading a team of Commonwealth observers in the fourth Malawi polls.
Further, the Electoral Institute for Southern Africa (EISA) has applauded the Malawi Electoral Commission (EC) for their transparency during the voting process.
"Our mission has observed that the EC displayed a degree transparency in the management of the electoral process thus winning the confidence of the majority of the electoral stakeholders the mission came in contact with," observed EISA’s mission leader Denis Kadima.
The head of delegation for Comesa observer mission Otema Musuka says looking at the way Malawi has performed during the 2009 election, the country has set a good example as far as elections in the region are concerned.
As the results are still coming in from different tally centers in districts across the country, 75-year-old President Bingu wa Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading with wider margins in the presidential race as his party is scooping more seats in Parliament.
Mutharika’s strong contender 77-year-old John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), who is in an electoral coalition with former President Bakili Muluzi is on second position, with two of the seven contestants already conceding defeat on Wednesday.
So far, almost 42 percent of the votes have been confirmed, with Mutharika having 1,387,033 and Tembo getting 539,192.
Almost six million Malawians registered to vote in this year’s polls, which over one thousand parliamentary candidates are fighting for 193 seats in the National Assembly.
