Commission boss throws in the towel

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chief Jane Ansah has stepped down with just a month to go before the court-ordered presidential election rerun. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, the country is required to hold fresh polls after the Constitutional Court overturned the results of last year's controversial election, which handed President Peter Mutharika a second term. Al Jazeera reports that Ansah has since been the target of nationwide protests calling for her to go over her handling of the disputed election. ‘I have written to the appointing authority (Mutharika) that I have decided to step down,’ she told the state broadcaster. Leading human rights activists had been planning a fresh wave of protests this week to force Ansah to step down. Ansah denied she was giving in to pressure. ‘I have fought a good fight and I go happy,’ she said, adding that she has ‘no skeletons in my cupboard’.