Malawi to hold fresh presidential polls on July 2

ANKARA (AA) – Malawi’s electoral commission announced Monday that fresh presidential polls will be held on July 2, according to local media reports.

“Today, I am pleased to announce to you that the commission has done its groundwork and is ready to hold these elections on July 2, 2020. Please note that July 2 is the 149th day from Feb. 3,” the commission’s chairperson, Jane Ansah, said in reference to the date on which the Constitutional Court nullified the 2019 presidential elections after considering charges of irregularities.

Voter registration for the polls will begin on April 4 and run until June 7 in four phases, Ansah told reporters.

The nomination of candidates for the presidential polls will take place April 23-24 in the southern city of Blantyre, she added.

In a landmark ruling, Judge Healey Potani, chairman of the five-judge panel hearing the case, announced on Feb. 3 that “the presidential results announced on May 27, 2019 are null and void. Fresh elections should be held within 150 days.”

The ruling, the first of its kind in Malawi’s history, brings an end to a political impasse which has led to a series of post-election demonstrations since the announcement of the May voting results.

The protests over the polls’ results on many occasions turned violent with looting, damage to property and injuries.