Political party representatives last night took Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to task over some unsealed boxes of manual tally sheets and election management devices (EMDS) from districts to the national tally centre in Lilongwe.
By midnight yesterday, the electoral body had taken delivery of manual tally sheets from Nkhata Bay District Council, Kasungu Municipality, Luchenza Municipality in Thyolo Zomba City, Ntcheu and Likoma.
The kits for the September 16 General Election were physically taken to the national tally centre at Bingu International Convention Centre by electoral staff accompanied by political party representatives and security agencies.
However, it emerged that some of the kits were delivered without appropriate security seals.
The worst-case scenario involved 42 of the 45 kit boxes from Nkhata Bay which had no seals.
This happened after all four boxes from Luchenza Municipality also arrived without seals and at least three from Kasungu Municipality came with a single seal each, instead of two.
The developments irked political party representatives who halted the handover process for about 20 minutes, demanding an explanation from MEC.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) team leader Mutchanakwaye Mpuluka described the development as disappointing.
He said: “We are disappointed with what has happened. Everyone knows and expects that these boxes should come in sealed to allay any suspicions. What has happened here is uncalled for and we demand that the MEC should address this issue accordingly.
“For now, we have agreed that the commission will print and circulate hard copies of the results contained in the EMDs for our comparison with what our monitors recorded on the ground. If there will be a mismatch in any way, then you will see reaction.”
On his part, UTM Party director of elections Bright Kawaga also expressed discontent with the incident, saying they expected MEC and its officials tasked to manage the elections to do the rightful thing.
“Unfortunately, that’s not what has come here. As a party we do not want to be going to court for a thing that MEC would have controlled. But the way things are going, it seems that MEC has lost control,” he said.
The tense standoff disrupted the first transmission of results from council tally centres to the national hub.
MEC officials eventually defused the situation after discussions with the party agents, who agreed to allow the process to proceed on condition that the commission produces printouts of results captured by the EMDs.
There was no immediate comment from the commission except that the matter will be investigated to ascertain whether the anomalies originated from source or along the way during transfer to the national tally centre.
The results flowing to the national tally centre will form part of the official outcome of the high stakes elections, which drew one of the highest voter turnouts in recent years.
By 00.20am, another box of EMDs and tally sheets from Likoma District had just arrived at the national tally centre.
Malawians went to the polls on Tuesday to elect a president, members of Parliament and ward councillors.
Presidential election results are expected to be announced not beyond eight days after close of voting, according to the law. On the other hand, official results for the parliamentary election will be announced within 14 days and those for councillors within 21 days.
