Jakarta Globe – AFP, May 31, 2014
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| Malawi President Joyce Banda speaks during a press conference at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on May 24, 2014. (AFP Photo) |
Blantyre.
Malawian President Joyce Banda on Saturday congratulated her arch-rival Peter
Mutharika for winning the country’s presidential election, whose result she had
initially challenged.
Conceding
defeat, Banda congratulated Mutharika for his “victory in a closely contested
election” and said she was “leaving office a happy person,” according to a
statement.
Banda, the
country’s first female president, came to power in 2012 after the death of
Bingu wa Mutharika, the elder brother of Peter Mutharika.
The
electoral commission said Friday that Mutharika took 36.4 percent of the votes
cast against Banda’s 20.2 percent.
The results
were announced minutes after the high court refused a last-ditch attempt to
block their release and allow time for a recount.
Electoral
commission chief Maxon Mbendera declared Mutharika “president-elect” after last
week’s vote, which Banda said was marred by “serious irregularities” and “null
and void.”
The results
showed that Banda was beaten into third place by Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi
Congress Party (MCP), who garnered 27.8 percent of the vote.
Party
spokeswoman Jessie Kabwila told AFP the MCP, which had made the bid for a
recount, would challenge the results in court.
But Banda
urged the country to throw its weight behind Mutharika.
She said
she wanted “to urge all Malawians to support the newly elected President
Professor Mutharika and his Government as they take on this foundation of
progress and endeavour to develop Malawi even further.”
Banda
described the elections as “tense,” but added Malawians should move forward “as
one nation, to remain united, to uphold the rule of law, and continue being
peaceful and calm as we head into the next fifty years of Malawi’s future.”
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