Off the Shelf

Opposition are part of the problem

The blame-game on the poor turnout for the supplementary voter registration currently underway has been making headlines. As usual, opposition political parties are the loudest criers and heaping the blame on the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC). Truth be told; opposition parties and all those blaming MEC for the low turnout during the supplementary voter registration exercise underway are missing the point because they are also part of the problem.

Opposition political parties have been smearing MEC with all kinds of accusations including that the electoral body messed up the whole voter registration exercise. The parties first condemned MEC for only recognizing the National Identification Card (ID) for eligibility to register as a voter. They forgot that the law only recognizes the national ID for one to register as a voter. So MEC was telling those without the national ID to first register with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) to get a national ID to be eligible to register as voters. NRB personnel were in all voter registration centres. Fortunately, those without the national ID could simply avail themselves to NRB staff who were at all voter registration centres to register their names marking the start of the process for obtaining their national IDs.

There were others who had already commenced the process of getting the national ID but they had not yet been issued the card. These could also not register as voters at that time. The supplementary voter registration covers both groups of people. Since then, both groups of people have been issued with the national IDs. And these are the only people who are registering as voters.

MEC is anticipating registering 271 000 or fewer people during the supplementary voter registration exercise. The problem is that very few people have been turning up to register during the exercise. And so opposition parties are once again blaming MEC for this. They are barking the wrong tree because they are also part of the problem rather than the solution.

To start with, MEC is only implementing the law. In April last year, Parliament amended the Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act. The new thing the amendment introduced was that only those with a national ID should be eligible to register as voters. Parliament consists of both ruling party and opposition members. This means that all political parties represented in Parliament were aware of the new law having been part of its creation.

But when MEC applied the same law, opposition members surprisingly started crying wolf. They have been doing so ever since. This is hypocrisy to say the least. If the law was bad and would bar some potential registrants, they should have objected to its enactment. But they did not do so. They too are therefore to blame for passing the law but not sensitizing their constituents about it. MPs are in Parliament as representatives of their constituents and not for their own benefits.

After failing to register during the normal registration process, it was the duty of both MEC and political parties to sensitise their supporters that there was another window of opportunity to register during the supplementary voter registration. MEC has been everywhere doing this. Political parties should also have gone to their supporters with the same message. If they did not, they should not blame MEC.

There are two narratives that are also contributing to the low turnout during the supplementary voter registration. One is that from day one the opposition and some civil society groups have been accusing MEC chairperson Justice Annabel Mtalimanja of contracting Smartmatics, the company that is supplying electronic electoral gadgets, to rig the elections. The accusation has not helped the opposition’s cause. For all we know, Smartmatics was engaged long before Justice Mtalimanja was hired.

The other narrative is the opposition’s demand that Justice Mtalimanja and MEC chief executive officer Andrew Mpesi should resign because they are allegedly related to MCP officials or affiliated to the ruling party, respectively. And, therefore, according to the opposition, the two officers cannot be impartial in managing the elections.

Other than lacking a legal basis for their stand on the two officers, peddling such a message is not something that would encourage voters to flock to registration centres to register as voters. It is like the story of the fabled fishmonger who woos customers and tells them “come and buy my smelly fish”. Will they buy him? You can’t invite someone to do something you are despising.

So that is the dilemma of the opposition. At best they are trying to create a premise for rejecting the outcome of the September 16 General Elections should it not turn in their favour.

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