The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) is set to announce official results for Dedza Central By-election today, but unofficial results that The Daily Times saw indicated that governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate Willard Gwengwe was in the lead.
The unofficial results indicated that he had amassed 7,988 votes against independent candidate Jacob Kaumphawi’s 7,395 votes.
The development prompted some voters to start celebrating.
MCP director of youth Richard Chimwendo Banda could not resist the temptation to join in the celebrations, as he posted on his Facebook page: “Thank you Lord we won in Dedza.”
Meanwhile, Mec Chairperson Chifundo Kachale has indicated that results of the poll will be announced today.
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He said the Dedza by-election was the first to be conducted using new electoral laws which were passed by Parliament in December 2022, before being assented to by President Lazarus Chakwera on February 18 this year.
Dedza Central Constituency has 60 polling stations, with the electoral body indicating that all of them opened on time and ran uninterrupted throughout the day.
Kachale, however, bemoaned low turnout.
“Regarding voter turnout, though the final figures have not been compiled, from our monitoring of the process from morning to closing time, it paints a picture which is not a departure from the trend that by-elections are characterised by low turnout,” he said.
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Election result will be announced at 2pm at the Residential Training Centre of the Department of Agriculture at Dedza Boma.
