US embassy cable - 04LILONGWE438

UNCLAS LILONGWE 000438 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, PINR, PHUM, MI, Political, Elections 
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 
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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