PAC proposes New look MEC

Members of Parliament’s Public Appointments Committee (PAC) have recommended the dismissal of MEC commissioners—including embattled chairperson Jane Ansah—for alleged incompetence and mismanagement of the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections, it has emerged.

While PAC chairperson Collins Kajawa kept close to his chest the resolution of the public inquiry that assessed the competences of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) members as ordered by the Constitutional Court on February 3, three insiders separately yesterday confided in The Nation that 12 against nine voted for the replacement of the MEC team ahead of the pending fresh election.

The sources said the decision was made after assessments of the testimonies of the commissioners interviewed from Monday to Wednesday last week.

“I can confirm to you that we have agreed that all the commissioners should be fired. Twelve of us voted for them to be fired while six voted no and three abstained. It was an open voting system by the show of a hand,” said one of the trio.

PAC has a membership of 21, including chairperson, and comprises six legislators from the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), six independents, five from main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), two from United Democratic Front (UDF) and one each for People’s Party (PP) and UTM Party.

Based on the numbers by political party affiliation, the picture is clear that members voted along political party lines. On Monday, tempers flared during the PAC inquiry meeting as DPP legislators and some independents accused opposition parliamentarians of attempting to impose a report on the fate of the commissioners.

Procedurally, PAC is supposed to produce three reports—one for the President, the other for the committee chairperson to present in the House and another for circulation to members of Parliament (MPs).

In an interview yesterday, Kajawa refused to give information on the inquiry’s findings, saying the committee reports to Parliament; hence, can only release the report through that platform.

He said: “I can’t give information on the report. We will come up with the report any day. At the moment we are finalising it and we will give the President a copy of our recommendations before tabling it in the House.”

The five-judge panel of the High Court of Malawi sitting as the Constitutional Court that nullified the presidential election in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections tasked Parliament to take appropriate legislative measures to ensure that:

•The significance of the certainty which is brought by the fixing of the date of the general election under Section 67(1) of the Constitution is preserved; and that,

•Whoever is elected President of the Republic during the fresh elections, is allowed to serve the constitutionally prescribed five-year term.

•The Public Appointments Committee of the National Assembly should, in terms of Section 75(4) of the Constitution, inquire into the capacity and competence of the Electoral Commission’s current commissioners, to oversee the conduct of the fresh elections;

•Parliament should take necessary amendment action in respect of Section 75(1) of the Constitution so that the appointing authority of the chairperson of the Electoral Commission is clearly provided for.

The court also gave Parliament 21 days from February 3 2020 to make appropriate provisions for the holding of the presidential run-off in the event that no single candidate secures the constitutional majority under Section 80(2) of the Constitution as interpreted by the court.

The five-judge panel comprising Healey Potani, Mike Tembo, Ivy Kamanga, Redson Kapindu and Dingiswayo Madise, unanimously upheld a petition to nullify the election and tasked Parliament to facilitate the reconstruction of MEC which was found to have been “grossly incompetent”.

The President can remove from office MEC commissioners on recommendation from PAC on grounds of incompetence in the discharge of their duties.

The Constitutional Court declared the commissioners incompetent in the discharge of their duties of  managing elections and ordered PAC to conduct hearings to assess if they are up to the task ahead of a presidential election rerun by July 2.