Malawi police detains private jet due to vote fraud suspicion

LILONGWE, May 20  — The Malawi police detained a private jet landing at the country’s Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) yesterday, due to ‘suspicious behaviours’ described by the authorities, local media reported.

The ZS-SDS aircraft owned by South-African air consultant Fair Aviation had landed at the airport on Friday, then flying to Malawi’s northern city of Mzuzu and Likoma Island in Lake Malawi, said James Kadadzera, spokesman for the Malawi Police Service, adding the plane returned to Malawi’s capital Lilongwe along the same route later in that day.

“The plane has been detained due to suspicious activities of its crew members and passengers which the Malawi Police Service and other security arms are currently investigating in the interest of national security,” according to a police statement released by the spokesman.

Malawian Vice President Saulos Chilima, a candidate running the country’s presidential elections scheduled for May 21 from the United Transformation Party, took the plane to Likoma Island for canvassing on Friday, local media reported.

Chilima and incumbent President Peter Mutharika accused each other of rigging the campaign, while the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) endorsed the fairness of the upcoming elections and challenged those who claimed that the elections would be rigged to bring forward evidence.

Seven presidential candidates will contest in the elections but the popular three are Mutharika from the Democratic Progressive Party, Lazarus Chakwera from the Malawi Congress Party and Chilima. – XINHUA