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1 1 (July 14, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdasj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FF. ' iE SE .r, i , July 14, 2020 Malawi: Elections, Key Issues, and U.S. Relations On June 23, 2020, 59% of voters in Malawi, a small, poor southeast African country, ousted incumbent President Peter Mutharika in favor of opposition presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera during a rerun of a presidential election held in May 2019. The country's High Court ordered the rerun after annulling the 2019 vote in early 2020, citing a raft of serious irregularities. Mutharika, who won the 2019 election, called the decision a travesty of justice and sought its reversal, but the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and upheld the High Court's ruling. Opposition parties in other African countries, analysts, and U.S. officials have welcomed the electoral and judicial oversight processes that produced this outcome. Such processes, which have rarely produced analogous results in sub-Saharan Africa, may provide insights and precedents for other countries in the region as well as inform ongoing U.S. efforts to support democratic strengthening and the rule of law in Africa. In particular, they may suggest a need to prioritize support for impartial electoral dispute mediation and independent judicial oversight to ensure free and fair electoral processes. The importance of such support could grow if Malawi's example the ouster of an incumbent president were to prompt other sitting African leaders to endeavor to control their own countries' electoral processes and judiciaries to preclude a similar outcome. While campaign rhetoric and pledges during the 2019 election focused on issues important to voters, such as corruption, job growth, small business and agricultural aid, and infrastructure investment, the parties' policies on these issues only differed moderately. Mutharika, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won the May 2019 presidential election, with 39% of votes, despite vulnerabilities arising from corruption scandals linked to officials in his government and party. Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), a former ruling party, won 35% of votes, while 20% went to then-Vice President Saulos Chilima, who had broken with Mutharika and left the DPP to launch his own party, the United Transformation Movement (UTM); minor candidates won the balance. In concurrent parliamentary polls, no party won a majority; the DPP won 62 seats, the MCP 55, independents 55, and the United Democratic Front (UDF) 10 seats. The pre-poll period featured some political violence, which the United States condemned. Initial international election observers noted campaign tensions, pro-DPP use of state resources, and bias by state media, but otherwise positively assessed the election process. The MCP and UTM, in contrast, sued to annul the election, citing systematic pro- DPP irregularities and, alongside some civil society groups, called for Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chair Jane Ansah to resign. Mutharika was sworn in on May 31, but the matter remained in litigation for months, during which Malawi faced many, often large election protests. Some featured violence, perpetrated variously by protesters, security forces, and ruling party youth. A Malawi Human Rights Commission report alleging that police assaulted and raped counter-protesters also raised a furor. On February 3, 2020, the High Court, citing widespread, systematic and grave irregularities and procedural flaws by the MEC, unanimously annulled the 2019 presidential election. It also urged that a new MEC be appointed and validated Mutharika's post-May 2019 tenure, pending new elections. In a ruling that overturned Supreme Court precedent, the court also invalidated the entire plurality- based presidential election system. Asserting that the constitution requires presidents to be directly elected by a majority of voters (as bills twice rejected by parliament would have required), it ordered that parliament enact an election system requiring the winner to earn 50% of votes plus one or more additional votes. Prior to the ruling, a DPP-linked businessman's alleged attempt to bribe the High Court over the poll case fueled further mass protests. In the months after the High Court's decision, which the Supreme Court affirmed in May 2020, there were clashes in court and in parliament over the election date, the makeup of the MEC, and an electoral reform bill that Mutharika refused to sign. The 2020 polling date was not finalized until June 9, leaving little time to prepare for the election or to enact new election enabling laws (none were ultimately passed). Mutharika, who won 40% votes, ran alongside Atupele Muluzi (UDF), the son of ex-president Bakili Muluzi (in office 1994-2004). Chakwera and his running mate, Chilima, were backed by the four-party Tonse Alliance. A marginal third candidate also ran. Polling day, on June 23, was preceded by isolated political violence and mass opposition campaign events that flouted a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) ban on large gatherings. Malawi, an ex-British colony, is a landlocked, poor, donor- reliant country with an agriculture-based, undiversified economy. It is import-dependent for many products (e.g., fuel and manufactured goods). Its poor infrastructure contributes to high transaction and production costs and hinders economic growth and trade. Poverty is widespread. Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 per capita stood at $371, the fourth lowest globally. Cycles of drought and floods often undermine food security, and in 2019 a cyclone hit southern Malawi and caused population displacement. The country also faces health challenges, including a 9.2% HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate. Malawi underwent a democratic transition in the early 1990s after nearly three decades of one-party rule under founding President Hastings Banda and his MCP. It has p\w -- , gn'a', goo mppm qq\ a , q 'S I 11LINUALiN,

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