President Peter Mutharika has just cast his vote at Goliati Primary School in Thyolo District.
Addressing the press soon after voting, Mutharika said he was disappointed with alleged incidents of violence in some parts of the central region, particularly against monitors from Mutharika’s governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He also said he was dismayed that DPP general secretary Grezelder Jeffrey was forced to flee her home in Nkhotakota after an irate mob went there. It is not clear who the alleged assailants were or what their motives were.
Said Mutharika: “It’s sad, so to speak. I mean it can only be the opposition… For whatever reasons, I don’t know. Imagine she had to seek refuge in the forest before she was rescued by security agents. On top of that, the same people have torched a lodge belonging to her husband.
“I’m saddened and I condemn such barbaric acts in the strongest sense possible.We all need credible and fair elections, but what the opposition is doing is not fair. They have even chased our monitors from other centres.”
Mutharika declined to address the crowd that came to witness his vote, saying doing so would have been construed as campaigning during an election period and a violation of electoral law.
