As the countdown to the May 20 Tripartite Elections continues, some traditional leaders in Machinga District have expressed fears over the inadequacy of campaign rallies by contesting parties, saying this may affect the credibility of the results.
The concerned chiefs said in separate interviews that apart from civic and voter education rallies being conducted by National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust, there is total silence in their areas.
“There’s absolutely no campaign rally taking place in my area. And I fear that people won’t make an informed choice on the polling day,” said Group Village Head Mtweya who is under Traditional Authority (T/A) Kawinga in the district.
Mtweya added that his subjects do not know the number of people contesting for councillorship or for the seats of Parliament in the area.
The chief suspected that politicians are shunning his area because it is remote and hard-to-reach.
One of the registered voters, Imaan Jafali, said he has never seen candidates campaigning in the area, but he ruled out inaccessibility of the area.
“I just don’t know why they’re failing to conduct campaign rallies. Maybe, our candidates are penniless such that they can’t manage to hold campaign rallies,” said Jafali.
However, the situation is different in the area of Senior Chief Liwonde where candidates are reportedly employing diverse mechanisms of wooing voters, including door-to-door approaches, according to Febbie Fabiano who comes from GVH Bile and Evelyn Dyson of Mwambala Village.
“Of course, the challenge is that we’re always let down when we attend their [candidates’] meetings because they don’t have issues to address. Apart from castigating the incumbent MP and the President, there’s nothing they’re telling us,” said Dyson.
