Malawi court nullifies presidential vote, orders new election

Blantyre — The Constitutional Court in the southern African nation of Malawi on Monday nullified the results of last year's presidential election, citing “widespread, systematic and grave” irregularities including significant use of correction fluid to alter the outcome. A new vote will be held within 150 days, the court said in its unanimous ruling, saying at the end that it hoped the ruling would not "destroy the nation.' The two leading opposition candidates had challenged the narrow election win of President Peter Mutharika, alleging that irregularities affected over 1.4 million of the total 5.1 million votes cast. Months of sometimes deadly unrest followed the announcement of the...