Malawi President Wins Reelection but Not Majority

President Bakili Muluzi won a second five-year term Friday, but his ruling party failed to capture a majority in parliament, according to official election results.

Muluzi won 2.4 million votes, or 51.3%, in Malawi’s second democratic elections Tuesday. Just more than 2.1 million votes, or 44.3%, went to his main opposition rival, Gwanda Chakuamba.

Three other presidential candidates took the remainder.

The inauguration was scheduled for Monday.

Judge James Kalaile, head of the state Electoral Commission, said Muluzi’s ruling United Democratic Front captured 93 seats in the 193-seat parliament, two shy of the opposition’s total.

Chakuamba’s Malawi Congress Party had 66, and the Alliance for Democracy party took 29 seats.

Earlier Friday, opposition supporters, alleging vote rigging, went on the rampage in northern Malawi, police said.

Police said a mosque was torched in the northern district of Rumphi and supporters of the ruling party and the main opposition hurled stones at each other in the northern town of Mzuzu.