Santiago Valenzuela blog

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika is due to be inaugurated for a second term after a landslide election win.

The election commission said he had won more than 2.7m votes, with nearest rival John Tembo taking nearly 1.3m.

Mr Tembo cried foul but his opposition coalition backer, ex-President Bakili Muluzi, congratulated the incumbent.

Mr Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also won a majority in parliament. Regional heads of state are in Malawi for the inauguration.

Zambia's President Rupiya Banda, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and Tanzanian Vice-President Ali Mohammed Shein are also due to attend the ceremony at 1000 local time (0900 BST).

Song and dance

South Africa, Rwanda, Swaziland and Lesotho are also expected to send representatives to the event in Blantyre.

Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson, Justice Anastansia Msosa, announced the outcome early on Friday with 93% of results in.

"These elections have been rigged"
John Tembo
Malawi Congress Party leader

Bingu wa Mutharika: Leading man

Q&A: Elections in Malawi

"As the outstanding votes cannot in any way affect the results, the commission has decided to... declare the leading candidate duly elected," she said.

After she made the announcement, DPP supporters clad in the official party blue colour, broke into song and dance.

"My children are safe!" shouted one. "The opposition has no agenda for the nation. They were just interested in ousting Bingu."

There were five other presidential candidates and they shared three per cent of the votes.

Mr Mutharika, a 75-year-old former World Bank official, saw his DPP take the lion's share of parliamentary votes, after partial results.

Out of 133 of the 193 seats that make up Malawi's parliament, the DPP took 78; Mr Tembo's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) 18; Mr Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF) 12.

One seat each went to the northern-based Alliance for Democracy and the little-known Malawi Forum for Unity and Development.

Twenty-three seats went to independent candidates.

Unfair advantage

International poll monitors said the president had enjoyed an unfair advantage, noting they were "extremely concerned" by what they called a lack of balanced coverage from state media.

And Mr Tembo refused to admit defeat, telling a news conference in the capital, Lilongwe: "These elections have been rigged. The result was extraordinary, very, very unusual."

But Mr Muluzi, who had backed Mr Tembo after being himself barred from seeking a third term, struck a different note.

"I conveyed my congratulations to him [Mr Mutharika]for the victory and wished him well and his DPP party," he told media.

The poll followed a five-year feud between Mr Muluzi and his successor that had brought a failed impeachment bid, parliamentary deadlock and coup plot claims.

Mr Mutharika was elected on a UDF ticket in 2004 but then fell out with Mr Muluzi, accusing his one-time backer of trying to stonewall an anti-corruption drive.

The president quit his rival's party in 2005 to form the DPP and lead a minority government.

Mr Muluzi is facing charges of siphoning $10m ($6.3m) from donor countries.

Poverty, agriculture and health care are the big issues for Malawi, where two-thirds of the 14 million population lives on less than $1 a day and Aids has orphaned an estimated one million children.

Are you in Malawi What are your experiences of the election How do you feel about Mr Muluzi conceding defeat Send us your comments.

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