Parties speak on JB order, recount
Political parties have reacted to incumbent President Joyce Banda’s order to nullify the May 20 Tripartite Elections. Her People’s Party (PP) justified the controversial decision as it has been made after wide consultation.
PP acting secretary general Paul Maulidi, speaking in an interview at the National Tally Centre in Blantyre yesterday, said the President issued the directive in reaction to “a lot of queries and pressure” that this country could have gone haywire if she did not make a decision on the way forward.
Said Maulidi: “The declaration was made by the President with full consultation and blessings of the lawyers who represent the President and these are government lawyers who include the Attorney General [AG].
Maulidi claimed that the pressure did not only come from PP, United Democratic Front (UDF) or Malawi Congress Party (MCP), but also from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who believe they have won the election and want to go ahead with the inauguration.
Commenting on the verification and recount of the vote, Maulidi said ballot papers were “flying all over, there was no security to secure the ballot papers and our monitors were deprived access to the numbers at the polling centres.”
He said immediately the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) started releasing the results, several irregularities were discovered, including changing of figures at random.
But DPP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi said the issue of recount has got several challenges which DPP believes have to be looked into.
Said Dausi: “Firstly, safety and security of ballot papers is not there because during transportation from the polling centre to the warehouse, there was no security officer.
“And, who complained? Because when you complain to the electoral commission, the rule of law doesn’t solve it. There are certain avenues that you have to follow that have not been done. Finally, they are saying recounting, but recounting what? Because they haven’t finished counting votes, they did not announce and they are going for a recount. Do you recount things that you haven’t counted?”
