/ 12 July 1999

MALAWI POLL HEARING DELAYED

A MALAWI High Court hearing of an opposition suit to nullify last month’s presidential elections, won by incumbent head of state Bakili Muluzi, failed to get under way as planned on Monday. Senior registrar Charles Mkandawire, speaking from the administrative capital Lilongwe, said judge Andrew Nyirenda had issued orders to lawyers of the opposition and the electoral commission on Thursday, but these instructions had not been received by attorneys for both parties. The opposition, which lost the June 15 poll with a narrow margin, wants the electoral commission to nullify the results, claiming they were rigged by Muluzi’s United Democratic Front (UDF) and that the re-elected president did not win with a majority vote. Mkandawire said that lawyers for the opposition and the poll body needed time to study and respond to the orders.