Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) programmes officer Dalitso Magelegele has challenged party monitors to be alert, observant and guided by the new Electoral Laws when discharging their duties in polling stations during the September 16 General Election.
He said this on Wednesday in Karonga during training for trainers of trainers (ToTs) from political parties from Chitipa and Karonga districts.
elections. I Jordan Simeon-Phiri
Magelegele said monitors play a crucial role in ensuring that the electoral process is guarded on behalf of their political parties; hence, the need to do it with integrity in accordance with the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Act.
He said: “CMD is an institution made up of members from political parties represented in Parliament and we regard elections monitoring as an integral part of the electoral process; hence, the decision to train these ToTs so that they train their monitors in their respective parties to reduce human errors and increase confidence in the elections.”
In an interview, Alliance for Democracy (Aford) representative Alice Simbeye from Kapoka in Chitipa District described the training as fruitful.
On his part, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) ToT from Karonga, Walusako Munde said the training was timely.
“We acquired knowledge which will help us train monitors how best to monitor the elections,” he said.
On her part, People’s Party (PP) ToT Agnes Munkhondya from Karonga said the training promoted togetherness and taught monitors to desist from bribes from other political parties.
“Let us promote this unity and togetherness so that even on polling day, we can monitor the elections as a team serving Malawi’s democracy,” she said.
With support from United Nations Development Programme and UN Women under Malawi Elections Support Programme, CMD trained 48 participants from Aford, Democratic Progressive Party, MCP, PP, United Democratic Front and UTM Party.
