Mec acted impartially throughout Malawi’s election period- EU Chief Election Observer

De Keyser spoke Thursday morning in Blantyre where they also issued preliminary statement on the ongoing tripartite elections.

She said the notwithstanding considerable organisational shortcomings and.a few isolated incidents of unrest, mainly in Blantyre, calm prevailed on the actual voting day, May 20 2014.

“Lack of essential material resulted in delays in the opening of polling stations.

“However, the commitment of polling station staff facilitated the voting process, along with the implementation of adhoc solutions, made in agreement with political party representatives, to address problems caused by the lack of materials,” she said.

She further told journalist and other electoral stakeholders that despite some logistical deficiencies, they observed a general improvement of the voting process as election day proceeded.

She then hailed polling station staff for their dedication amidst a challenging environment and the Malawian voters, who she said, waited patiently on the queues for the voting to start.

Meanwhile, Mec Chairperson Maxon Mbendera has snubbed incumbent President Joyce Banda’s calls to recount the votes manually.

Addressing a news conference Banda called on the Commission to carry out an immediate manual audit of the 
whole counting process. 

“I further wish to urge the Malawi Electoral Commission to ensure that it only allows the accredited media houses to announce only those results that are verified and are coming from MEC’s official platform”.

But Mbendera while snubbing the calls, urged Banda and her party officials to go all polling stations to very the results by themselves.

“The results are conspicuously pasted at the polling centres, as such they can always cross check with their monitors,” said Mbendera

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