Malawi president defiant on court's annulment of election results
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E-mail Xinhua, February 6, 2020
LILONGWE, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Malawi president, Peter Mutharika, has described the constitutional court's nullification of last year's presidential election results as flawed and an attack on the country's democratic systems.
Mutharika made the remarks in a national address through the country's state broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Wednesday evening, saying he will appeal against the court's judgment.
"As the first respondent in the May 21 Elections case, I have taken note of the judgement delivered by the High Court sitting as a Constitutional Court. Like many Malawians, my legal team and I have serious reservations with the judgment," said Mutharika.
"We consider the judgment as a serious subversion of justice, an attack on our democratic systems and an attempt to undermine the will of the people," said Mutharika.
Mutharika said if the judgment remains not cured, it will represent a flawed precedence for all future elections in the country.
He added that the judgment "inaugurates the death of Malawi's democracy" and that "as such it cannot stand unchallenged".
The Malawi leader said he has instructed his legal team to appeal against the judgment and challenge it.
"Let me however state that we are not appealing to stop the next election: In fact, we are ready to campaign and win as we have always done," said Mutharika.
"We are appealing to correct the fundamental errors in the judgement to protect our laws, principles of justice and democracy." He added.
However, the Malawi leader urged Malawians to remain calm and move forward as one people.
"We are one people. We have one Malawi. We remain one nation. And Malawi is bigger than us all," he said, adding that "within our Constitutional order, let us move forward in Peace, Love and Unity."
The Malawi constitutional court Monday upheld the opposition leaders' petition and nullified the May presidential election results on grounds of irregularities including manual alterations and use of tippex on the results sheets to change the figures.
The court has since ordered fresh elections within 150 days from the day of the judgment. Enditem
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