PAC wants leaders to sign peace pledge
The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) plans to hold national prayers where presidential candidates in the May 20 Tripartite Elections will sign a peace pledge as one way of ensuring violence free elections.
PAC, during the first interface presidential meeting, secured commitments from the candidates on the peaceful resolution and engaged them further for preventive diplomacy in the electoral violent conflicts.
Asked how PAC is implementing resolutions from its interface meetings with presidential candidates with only few weeks to the polls, the organisation’s executive director Robert Phiri said PAC was encouraged by the presidential candidates because of their sober -minded approach to issues that were raised.
Phiri said: “In view of this, I can confirm that PAC is approaching these candidates to concretise point number 16 of our [resolution,] document. Probably this week, we could [meet] some of them [for planning purposes of the national prayers].” Point number 16 is where candidates pledged to have peaceful resolution of conflicts.
He said while the past electoral processes may have been non-violent, an electoral cycle should always be treated to have triggers which may lead to violent acts by their nature.
He said PAC’s interaction with the presidential candidates aims at securing their input into a peace pledge document.
“It has to be owned by them rather than us imposing it. As PAC, we also learn their perspective on topical issues. In governance, we see things through different glasses. Peace is the most important treasure we have in Malawi.
“Elections provide a fertile ground for violent conflict because they deal with power relations among political players. And the very reason that the political landscape fails to determine who is the automatic winner for the 2014 Tripartite Elections is justification for PAC to design a project that will take a preventive approach to violent acts,” he said.
Phiri said the preventive approach to violence is essential in a country such as Malawi which is just coming from a political and economic crisis.
PAC, Phiri said, was also organising training sessions on mediation for the national mediators drawn from Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM), Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM,) Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) in case of major disputes during and after the elections.
Post-election violence in countries such as Zimbabwe and Kenya has in the past led to loss of hundreds of lives and damage of property.