Electoral Commission delays irk stakeholders
The delay by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to hasten implementation of some preliminary activities in the run-up to the 2019 Tripartite Elections has annoyed electoral stakeholders with some describing it as a “deliberate move to rig.”
The stakeholders, which include opposition political parties, said if not handled with care, the development could be a recipe for another calamity during the 2019 polls.
According to the 2019 Tripartite Elections stakeholders electoral calendar, by end of July this year the commission was supposed to have identified, accredited and trained civic and voter education service providers.
This exercise was supposed to involve the civil society organisations (CSOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs), among other non-governmental organisations.
In addition, the commission was also expected to have already launched the media Code of Conduct and held an orientation workshop for the accredited service providers, but all this has not yet been done.
However, when contacted yesterday, MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa asked for more time.
Meanwhile, one of the key electoral stakeholders, Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn), has expressed concern on the development.
Mesn board chairperson Steve Duwa said the slowdown would create serious challenges for service providers to access funding from the donors who have interest to support the country’s electoral activities in 2019.
He said: “These service providers will be required to have an accreditation certificate and also proof that they signed the code of conduct with MEC and if that is not done, it will be hard to access the funds in good time and that means also starting their activities late.
“In addition, starting late also means the service providers will not be able to reach out adequately to the intended electorates to be civic educated in order to make informed political choices in 2019 and failure to do that is disastrous to the country’s democracy.”
Already MEC postponed the demarcation exercise of constituencies and wards which was the key activity planned for the first half of 2017, arguing the basis of the exercise was the population censuses that is periodically carried out by the National Statistical Office, and the next census will be held in 2018. Because of this, MEC says the activity will be done in 2020.
Commenting on the issue, the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) deputy secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka said it would have been happy to see MEC keeping its own calendar to avoid unnecessary implications on the effective and efficiency of the 2019 elections.
But Alliance for Democracy (Aford) leader Enoch Chihana had no kind words for MEC, alleging the commission was deliberately delaying the exercise because it already started the process of rigging the 2019 polls on behalf of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He said President Peter Mutharika ignored inputs from other parties like Aford after the consultations and instead appointed commissioners that do not represent all parties.
But director of elections for the United Democratic Front (UDF) Charles Nkozomba said the delay by MEC to start implementing the preliminary activities was a worrisome development and that was a price “we pay as a country for over-relying” on others.
However, the DPP publicity secretary Francis Kasaila and the party’s director of elections Kondwani Nankhumwa were both not available for their comment on the matter. n
