In the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe, thousands of protesters were seen marching towards Capital Hill to demand the resignation of the Head of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), Justice Jane Ansah.

This follows other nationwide protests on June 20th accusing the MEC chief of misconduct during the elections, calling for her resignation. Saluos Chilima of the United Transformation Movement said: “We are continuing from where we stopped last time, I am here as a Malawian to join fellow Malawians in seeking justice. We would like Justice Jane Ansah to leave office because as everybody is aware, the elections didn’t go well and we are not happy at all.” 

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) received a court injunction on the 25th of May to suspend the announcement of election results over reports of irregularities that marred the election. The injunction was, however, lifted shortly after and President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was announced the winner on Monday, May 27th by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chief, Justice Jane Ansah.

President Mutharika won the election with 38.57% of the total number of votes cast; Lazarus Chakwera of the MCP came second with 35.41%; while Saluos Chilima of the United Transformation Movement came third with 20.24% of the votes.

Both Chakwera and Chilima are challenging the election results in court, and the hearing is expected to begin on July 29th.