Athletics polls shifted again

The caretaker committee overseeing the long-awaited Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) elections says it is not possible to have them in January 2023 due to logistical issues.

This will be the third time that the polls will be shifted since the AAM executive committee’s four-year mandate expired in October 2020.

After dissolving the AAM committee two months ago, the Malawi National Council of Sports gave the interim committee three months to finalise the election process within until this January.

However, caretaker committee chairperson Sylvester Kalembera, a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, yesterday said such an arrangement will not be possible.

“Three months is too short for the polls to take place. There are a number of things to be considered first,” he said.

“The AAM draft constitution has to be approved before the dates for the elections can be announced. There is also a need to issue a 28-day notice to stakeholders about the election so that nominations and campaigns can be conducted. All these require ample time and it will not be feasible to have the polls this January.”

AAM general secretary Frank Chitembeya said he could not comment on the matter.

But former acting AAM general secretary Mzee Makawa said it will difficult for the elections to take place because “the association is yet to adopt the amended constitution and do not know who will be the eligible voters following the latest constitutional changes”.

The association initially planned to hold elections in November 2021, but they were postponed after the Sports Council demanded AAM to conduct the polls after amending its proposed constitution.

Later, AAM came up with a road map to conduct the polls on December 17 this year but that was also stopped as the Council dissolved the committee for failing to amend its constitution within the stipulated time.

Meanwhile, Kalembera has said his committee has finalised the amendment process of the AAM constitution and have since submitted it to the council.

“We are just waiting for the council’s response on how we should proceed after we submitted to them the amended draft constitution,” he said.

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa concurred with Kalembera that the polls might indeed be delayed and it is unclear when they will finally be held.

“A number of factors have indeed caused the delays to hold the polls. For instance, the council board could not handle the matter following its recent dissolution. The new board has just been oriented this month and we will need time to sort out the AAM election case,” he said.

Prior to the polls’ initial postponement, some AAM affiliates complained to Sports Council that the elections could not be fairly conducted since some articles in their constitutions made it easy for incumbent committees to manipulate voters.

One of the most contentious articles allowed members of sub-committees, who were appointed by the elected executive committee members, to vote during an elective general assembly. This was seen as something that compromised the sub-committees loyalty because they were easily swayed to vote for individuals that appointed them.

Before the recent amendment of the constitution, the athletics governing body had been dodgy on the issue for over eight years.