No room for rigging–Mec
The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has said there will be no rigging in the 20th May Tripartite Elections.
MEC chairperson Maxon Mbendera provided the assurance in an interview with the Weekend Nation, saying he is not worried about allegations that have picked momentum in the last few weeks about some players having hatched plans to rig the elections.
“Am I anxious about those allegations?” asked Mbendera rhetorically, and responded to himself. “Not at all.”
“At what point will rigging take place?” he asked again when responding to a question regarding more allegations that certain candidates or particular parties were smuggling already marked ballot papers into the country to bolster their chances. “At what point will those said ballot papers be cast. Where will they cast them?”
Explaining his boldness and confidence, Mbendera said besides that the software to be used for transmission of results is secure because it cannot be hacked into, no result will be announced before it is verified by all participating candidates or their parties.
“This software only knows us [MEC] and we know this software – it does not know anybody else and we know no other software. So how will rigging take place? I ask again,” Mbendera quizzed, coolness written all over his face.
He added: “After we receive each result, we will give it to the contesting parties to verify it with their people on the ground. It is only after the verification has taken place when we will announce that result.”
In the event of rigging being proven, Mbendera said MEC will make a decision based on a determination whether the malpractice has affected the entire election or just part of it.
“Annulling the whole election is a very drastic decision. It can only happen when in our determination, the whole process has been proven to have been compromised.
“But as I have told you, we don’t expect that,” he said.
Put to him to take appraisal of the performance of MEC in managing the process that was littered by a messed up voters’ roll at one point, and whether he would guarantee a free, fair, credible and transparent election, Mbendera said:
“I am very happy with what MEC has done. Mind you, throughout the process, we have not done things on our own. We have always consulted all stakeholders to manage this electoral process. We have made decisions together; we have taken remedial measures together.”
He regretted the interruption to the electoral process that the botched up voters’ roll had caused, but commended the efforts to correct it in time.
One loophole to watch out for. It takes advantage of the weak monitoring regime where it is impractical to get proper coordination between monitors at the voting center and those at the district tally centers
Watch out for results from unknown or fake polling centers. This is a common way of rigging when votes from unknown centers are sent to district tally centers ahead of those from recognized centers. This type of rigging is very difficult to detect, especially if the fake centers use the correct center numbers and names when submitting the results.
These fake centers are usually the first to submit results, When subsequent and correct results from real centers are received at district center, they are normally rejected as duplicate submissions.
The key to effective monitoring here is to check whether the results from multiple submissions of a particular center are the same. If they are different, it signals that fake centers are submitting results.. Also parties should try getting photos and copies of results at each “real” center for later queries should court evidence be required.