Police announced the arrest of eight data processing employees for allegedly falsifying results.

Malawi's outgoing president's party on Friday denounced irregularities in the vote count in the general election in nearly half of the country's districts, while police announced the arrest of eight data processing employees for allegedly falsifying the results.

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) released its initial results on Friday, with tallies from three of the four councils showing a strong lead for former President Peter Mutharika following Tuesday's presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.

Employees suspected of 'manipulating data'

But the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of outgoing President Lazarus Chakwera said at a press conference that its representatives had discovered "irregularities" in 13 of the country's 28 districts.

"The MCP has filed a formal complaint with the MEC to conduct a physical audit, particularly in areas where we discovered serious anomalies," said Vitumbiko Mumba, Mr. Chakwera's running mate.

Police said eight election data entry employees were arrested in the capital, Lilongwe, on suspicion of "manipulating data."

"Media under pressure"

Malawi's main television stations stopped broadcasting live results from the general election on the same day, prompting a media advocacy group to condemn the pressure on journalists.

At least four television media outlets, including public broadcaster MBC, abruptly removed without explanation the tables compiling the results they had collected from polling stations.

"The media has been under pressure from various quarters to stop live broadcasts, including the results tables," said Golden Matonga, president of MISA Malawi, an organization defending freedom of information. "This will create a vacuum. Misinformation can fill this vacuum, and the public can be misinformed," he told AFP.

MISA Malawi urged all media outlets to continue providing updates on unofficial and official results “without bowing to any pressure from authorities or individuals.”

Evangelical pastor Lazarus Chakwera, 70, and his predecessor, former law professor Peter Mutharika, 85, previously faced off in 2014 and 2020. The winner will face the challenge of Malawi's moribund economy, plagued by shortages, foreign exchange shortages, and inflation. Some 70 percent of the 21 million people in the southern African country, one of the world's poorest, live on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank. If neither candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a likely runoff is scheduled within 60 days.