MEC should have done better on preparations—Livingstonia Synod

The CCAP Synod of Livingstonia says the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) should have done better on preparations for the first ever tripartite elections it conducted on Tuesday.

The synod’s moderator Timothy Nyasulu and the general secretary Levi Nyondo said this on Wednesday in an interview with The Nation after monitoring the voting process and counting of votes in Chitipa, Karonga, Rumphi and Mzimba.

They singled out challenges such as few ballot papers, misplacement of ballots, missing out of names in some polling centres and inadequate voter civic education as a learning point for the next election.

“Proper preparations should be done earlier because MEC knows in advance that ballots are printed outside the country. As such, they should be able to make sure that ballots are enough, and that they arrive on time.

“These, however, are lessons to government so that in the future they should be fully prepared to avoid such challenges,” said Nyasulu, who is also the moderator of the CCAP General Assembly.

He said lack of proper preparations was evident of the polling day when electoral officials were educating the electorate on sites of voting.

The two synod leaders, however, described the elections in the North as “generally peaceful” despite a few reported violence cases.

“Elections in the North have been free and fair although minor cases of violence were reported here and there. But no big cases were witnessed.

“For example in Karonga central, the situation has been better than we expected. People have voted peacefully. That’s a big achievement in the district,” said Nyasulu.

He said losing candidates and their supporters should desist from violence.

“Those who will lose in these elections should not resort to violence but rather support the winner. And the winner should not be provocative to the loser because this may fuel violence,” advised Nyasulu.

The voting exercise in the North was faced with various challenges which forced scores of voters failing to exercise their right to vote.

The voters roll, for instance, arrived late in Mzimba which contributed to some polling stations failing to open on time.

In other areas, there were few ballots whereas in Mzimba central, the local government polls were cancelled due to misplacement of ballots. In Mzuzu, names of the electorate were missing on the voting register.

In Karonga central, a single case of violence was reported where supporters of Cornelius Mwalwanda and Frank Mwenifumbo were fighting while voting was in progress.