High hopes as Malawi holds historic election and peaceful handover of power

Malawians are hopeful for the restoration of democracy after the country became the first in Africa to hold a peaceful presidential re-election and hand over power to the opposition. The country’s 2019 presidential election was annulled by the constitutional court in February this year, after the court found that there was tampering with the votes in the transmission of results over the Internet. Moreover, there was a partial Internet shutdown prior to the election. The re-election was peaceful, with the Internet remaining on. The new president was sworn into office on 28 June in a ceremony that was streamed online.