Did I not ask on this page last week if people are seeing what I am seeing regarding the opposition’s altercation with the Malawi Electoral Commission? I said it and I will not be coy to say it again.
The opposition Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP’s) overdrive against MEC stems from the top leadership changes that have taken place at the electoral body. Nothing more, or less. They have now bared their chest. It is the new MEC chairperson Justice Annabel Mtalimanja that they are begrudged with. Not incompetence or that she is failing to deliver at MEC but just out of their irrational fear of the unknown.
Last week, I said when you are a witch you think that everyone in the village is like you. DPP is steeped in the abysmal myopia that Justice Mtalimanja is by birth compromised, and so, cannot competently and impartially head MEC because she is a daughter of a former MCP president. Come on guys. Don’t stoop too low.
Does it follow that if your dad is a member of a certain political party, then you also subscribe to his political views? Mtalimanja has been a High Court Judge for 11 years and for the DPP to adjudge her as someone who can steal votes for the party her dad belonged to is denigrating and contemptuous, to say the least.
I think DPP guys are taking their ill-minded and bigoted agendas too far. But one thing they are telling the nation is that this is exactly what they could do if they were in Mtalimanja’s shoes. Indeed, when you are neck-deep in witchcraft, you smear everyone in the village with your concoction.
Admitted, no candidate or political party wants to lose a general election. But opposition politicians should have limits on the extent to which they can stake their integrity and reputation, if at all they have any.
I now turn to Smartmatics, a voting technology company which MEC has hired to manage some processes of the September 16, 2024 elections.
This is the other issue the opposition members are making so much noise about. They don’t want the firm to come anywhere near the elections on account that it has allegedly been used elsewhere for fraudulent purposes. While I can’t vouch for its integrity and professionalism, what I know is that in the United States of America and many other countries several media houses have paid this firm billions of dollars for spreading false claims about it.
Some news firms that have already settled related lawsuits against Smartmatics are Newsmax, Fox News and One America News. Fox News coughed out a whopping $800 million in 2023 for a defamation lawsuit. Most firms have been resolving the issues through ‘‘confidential settlements’’ or out of court.
Right now Smartmatics is also pursuing a $2.5 billion for another defamation lawsuit against Fox News, over the network’s airing of debunked claims that the company helped rig the 2020 US presidential elections for Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
The writing on the wall is that Smartmatics will not let any credible and accountable news outlet go away with it, if they spread false claims about the firm. Politicians can stand on top of a house and blurt out anything against a political opponent.
The one to be sued for defamation is the media outlet that airs or publishes the unsubstantiated claims. There are some online news outlets that will publish anything from a politician’s mouth and get away with it. The only reason they are able to do so is because they are not accountable to anyone.
In fact, many online news outlets are able to publish their so-called investigative stories even with little or no evidence at all because they know that nobody will pursue them. But it is a different kettle of fish for the credible and accountable ones.
