With the September 16 General Election fast approaching, civil society organisations (CSOs) say they are yet to mobilise at least K30 billion for voter and civic education to avert possible voter apathy.
Speaking on behalf of the CSOs in an interview yesterday, Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum chairperson Benedicto Kondowe said the lack of funding is standing in the way of CSOs’ efforts to support Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in the voter and civic education exercises.
He said: “CSOs need at least K30 billion for the exercise. We call on development partners to support CSOs with resources.”
The revelations comes amid indications of growing lack of interest in voting with about 65.7percent of eligible voters registering, a drop from 93 percent in 2014 and 80 percent in the 2019 elections.
Kondowe said ensuring that those who have registered turn up on polling day is key to promoting democracy in Malawi; hence, the need for intensified awareness campaigns.
But he observed that most donors who have been supporting CSOs with funding have over the years reduced or withdrawn their assistance, a development that has affected the capacity of CSOs accredited to conduct civic and voter education.
Said Kondowe: “Many accredited NGOs and other civic actors do not have funding for these crucial programmes, leaving millions of voters uninformed on the importance of participating in elections.
“If this challenge is not urgently addressed, we risk an even lower voter turnout on polling day.”
He has since called on CSOs to also mainstream the civic and voter education into other programmes that they carry out.
In a separate interview, Nyika Institute director Moses Mkandawire, who has also served as an international elections observer, agreed that NGOs are facing funding challenges which are affecting civic and voter education efforts.
He feared that the freezing of United States Agency for International Development (USAid) funding could worsen the situation and appealed to other development partners to come in and support the CSOs with resources.
Said Mkandawire: “If we don’t address the governance issues, there is no way you can claim that you will succeed in running projects in other sectors like education, health and agriculture. How do you do that when the whole governance system has been distorted? There is no accountability mechanism.”
He also called on government to provide adequate resources to MEC so that the electoral body can subcontract CSOs to undertake the civic and voter education exercise.
Said Mkandawire: “All stakeholders should take part in motivating Malawians to vote. There is a need to ensure that responsibilities are being adhered to, and are being promoted at all levels so that we have clean, credible, legitimate as well as free and fair elections. Politicians should also desist from campaigns that will frustrate voters.”
MEC was yet to respond to our questionnaire on funding for voter civic education by press time at 8pm.
Meanwhile, political parties The Nation engaged in random interviews yesterday committed to ensuring that those who have registered do go and vote.
United Democratic Front (UDF) spokesperson Dyson Jangia said UDF is concerned that a number of potential voters were left out of the registration process and their right to vote has been affected.
“However, the UDF has already started encouraging those that have registered to vote. The change people are looking for will only come if they vote.
“We need concerted efforts to achieve this. Parties, MEC, government, NGOs, faith leaders, community leaders need to encourage people to vote,” he said.
People’s Party secretary general Ben Chakhame said the party will see to it that Malawians vote in large numbers despite that a number of people were frustrated by the registration process.
UTM Party spokesperson Felix Njawala said those that have registered need to be motivated to vote. He said their vote has the power to bail them out from the suffering they are going through.
“If people are disappointed with the current state of affairs then they need to vote,” he said.
Aford spokesperson Annie Amatullah Maluwa also said they will intensify campaigns encouraging people to vote. She said people need to use their vote wisely to change things.
“Bad leaders are chosen by people that do not vote,” she said.
From the projected 10.9 million of eligible Malawians to vote in 2025, MEC has captured 7 200 905 in its database.
Of that figure, 4 113 342 are women while 3 087 563 are male.
On the other hand, in 2019, at least 8 525 538 were expected to register, but 6 859 570 did while in 2014, MEC projected to register 8 009 734 voters but ended up registering 7 470 806, which was a 93.2 percent achievement.
