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American pop star says Malawians deserve better than the current administration, as Joyce Banda calls for a re-run of election citing “rampant irregularities”
Madonna has waded into the row over Malawi’s elections, accusing the current administration of president Joyce Banda of corruption and blaming her for the suffering of the south-eastern African country’s people.
“I am so sad to see that because of the actions of their president, Malawians will continue to suffer,” said the 55-year-old singer, who has adopted two children from the country. Madonna has also set up an educational charity in Malawi, whose operations have for years been plagued by controversy.
In a statement sent to The Observer, she wrote: “In my philanthropic work I have seen the depths of corruption in Malawi’s government. I can only hope that change will come: Malawians deserve so much better.”
Mrs Banda has claimed that Tuesday’s election was marred by “fraudulent and rampant irregularities” and has called for a new poll within 90 days, in which she says she will not participate in – effectively ending her ambitions to remain Malawi’s president.
However Malawi’s High Court has rejected Mrs Banda’s call for a re-run after the country’s electoral commission said late on Friday that, with 30 per cent of the votes counted, her rival candidate, Peter Mutharika, had taken a lead of 42 per cent.
Mrs Banda has previously been held up by the West as a model for African leadership after reversing some of the excesses of her autocratic predecessor in power.
She said: “It is the public interest that all ongoing processes in the relation to the 2014 tripartite elections for the election of president, parliament and councillors are nullified.”
Mr Mutharika said the former businesswoman was making Malawi a “laughing stock” and risked sending it down “the path of destruction”.
Mrs Banda put him on trial for treason after he allegedly sought to seize power when his brother, former president Bingu wa Mutharika, died.
“I find the whole thing totally bizarre and beyond my comprehension,” he told a press conference. “Nothing in the constitution gives the president powers to cancel an election. This is clearly illegal, unconstitutional and not acceptable.
“The will of the people must be respected.”
Legal experts said the clause of the constitution Mrs Banda cited in her statement had nothing to do with electoral law.
Edge Kanyongolo, an Associate Professor in Law at University of Malawi Chancellor College described the president’s decision in an interview with EFE as “shockingly unconstitutional”.
“The president has cited a constitution provision that does not give her any powers that she is inserting to herself,” he said. “There are many lawful processes and procedures the president could have used. She perhaps should have gone to the court and obtain a court order or lodge a complaint with the electoral commission.”
The Malawi Electoral Commission has rejected the suggestion of a fresh election, but on Sunday did order a manual recount of the presidential vote, saying it was concerned that the number of ballots counted exceeded the number of voters registered.
Emmanuel Chimkwita Phiri, the election commissioner, said it had already identified 19 polling centres of the 1,333 processed so far where the mismatch had been spotted, and that if ballots were found to be tampered with, people would be prosecuted.
“There’s need for a physical check by opening the actual ballot boxes,” he said.
Lazarus Chakwera, another leading presidential candidate who has suggested that he too might have won the election, has also raised concerns about “rampant irregularity” in the process.
Madonna and Mrs Banda have had a series of public disagreements in recent years after the pop star sacked her sister, Anjimile Mtila-Oponyo, as head of her Raising Malawi charity.
Madonna tried to meet Mrs Banda during a visit to Malawi last year, but Mrs Banda said the star was simply trying to get “poor people to dance for her” and refused, also accusing Madonna of “blackmail” and “bullying” .
Trevor Neilson, president of the Global Philanthropy Group, said Madonna had since worked with other groups to build schools for over 1,000 students in Malawi, as well as funding clinics and orphanages, but had been regularly pilloried in the state-owned media on the president’s express instructions.
“We have been saying for years that Banda and her family were not models for African leadership,” he told The Observer.
“I can’t tell you how many friends who are NGO leaders have pulled me aside insisting that actually Banda was great and that I should support her. Now it appears that the people of Malawi agree with our assessment.”
