Malawi election workers arrested over alleged tampering in vote count

Police in Malawi have announced the arrests of eight data clerks for allegedly tampering with results after this week's elections.

Malawi’s 2019 presidential election was nullified because of widespread irregularities and officials in the African country want to avoid a similar scenario after Tuesday's general elections.

Both President Lazarus Chakwera's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and its main rival, the Democratic Progressive Party of former president Peter Mutharika, claim to have won the presidential vote.

Chakwera’s party claimed on Friday that it had discovered irregularities in the vote count in nearly half the country's districts.

First results out

"The MCP has lodged a formal complaint to the MEC to conduct a physical audit, especially in areas where we discovered serious anomalies," Chakwera's running mate, Vitumbiko Mumba, said. He did not give specific details of the alleged anomalies.

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) released its first results on Friday, with the tallies from three out of four councils showing a lead for 85-year-old Mutharika.

Police said eight election data entry clerks had been arrested around the capital, Lilongwe, suspected of "manipulating data".