Malawi cancels independence celebrations over virus spike

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South Africa Headlines News

Malawi's president Lazarus Chakwera on Sunday called off planned independence celebrations and drastically scaled back on his inauguration ceremony following a spike in coronavirus infections in the southern African country.

The cancellation will put a dampener on the euphoria generated by the historic opposition triumph in a recent landmark election re-run after last year's fraudulent polls were overturned.

Chakwera comfortably won the June 23 election with 58.5 per cent of the vote -- beating Peter Mutharika, whose re-election last year was anulled by the courts over"grave","widespread and systematic" irregularities. His formal inauguration had been slated for Monday at a giant stadium in the capital to coincide with the country's 56th independence celebrations.

Already on Saturday, he had slashed the stadium audience by half to 20,000 to limit the virus spread. But in an address on Sunday, the president called off the stadium festivities and shifted his inauguration event to a military barracks to be witnessed by only 100 specially-invited guests.

 

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