President Joyce Banda has no power to annul the General Election, says Malawi's High Court

The high court in Malawi has blocked the country’s President, Joyce Banda, from  cancelling last week’s presidential, Parliamentary and local councils elections. She had declared on Saturday that the vote was null and void, citing irregularities, which included multiple voting and hacking of the counting electronic system. She had called for fresh elections in 90 days, during which she said she would not run. She quoted section 88 of the constitution which she said gave her power to annul the elections. But the Electoral Commission challenged her decision and on Saturday evening the country’s high court suspended Banda's ruling and ordered vote counting to continue. Mrs. Banda stood for the position of President along with eleven other candidates, but the strongest challenger was Peter Mutharika, the brother of the late President Bingu Wa Mutharika who was leading with 42% after 30 percent of the votes had been counted. Joyce Banda was trailing with 23 percent. In Malawi a presidential candidate needs only a simple majority to win the presidential election. This means that a candidate can win the election with just one vote more. In many other African countries a candidate needs to win 51 percent to be declared President. In a related development Malawi’s electoral commission said on Sunday that it would on Monday begin a recounting of the votes cast after discovering voter irregularities in some parts of the country. Elections Officials said there were more votes cast than the official number of registered voters.