UDF’s future is still bright—Padambo

The United Democratic Front (UDF), despite riding on the wave of agenda for change, performed dismally in the May 20 Tripartite Elections. In this interview the party’s secretary general Kandi Padambo tells us how the party viewed the elections.

Q. How would you describe the May 20 Tripartite Elections in terms of credibility and fairness?

A.

Looking at the whole electoral cycle for the 2014 Tripartite Elections; the registration of voters could have been managed better. We did foresee some of the problems that were bound to be encountered and we offered our advice not once but several times in writing and at different fora. Unfortunately, we were not heard. As to the voters’ roll you know what happened. There were so many errors that it had to be withdrawn so that MEC [Malawi Electoral Commission] could make corrections.

Q. Did anything go according to plan on polling day?

A.

Then came polling day. An unmitigated disaster. Ballot boxes arrived at some polling centres without any seals. Some polling centres did not even receive the voters’ registers. Items arrived late at other centres. At some centres, officials resorted to stuffing ballots in cartons , buckets or sacks. When night fell the famed gas lamps from Zimbabwe could not work, according to MEC the operators had not been well-trained. Because of the numerous problems, polling had to be extended in some cases and people were still voting three days after the official polling day and while results were being announced on public radio. The law requires that political party monitors at polling centres should be provided with duly signed copy of the result sheet to ensure that the monitors can verify official results against what was recorded on the duly signed result summary. This was never done and no wonder results announced by MEC in many if not most cases glaringly differed with what monitors had recorded in exercise books or on sheets of paper.

Q. Were you satisfied with the results?

A.

Tally sheets received at the National Tally Cntre were to say the least dubious. There was a result sheet from a polling station in Mulanje Central Constituency where total valid votes cast at that station were recorded as 517 and yet the candidate with the highest number of votes, and therefore the winner at that polling station, went away with more than 3 000 votes! A candidate at a polling centre in Lilongwe urban amassed more than a thousand votes, according to monitors the result summary recorded the candidate’s vote as 7. In Kasungu, North West constituency, at Kambulu school polling station there were four streams. The result sheet records that one of the candidates got 328 298 323 and 382 in the four streams and the total was recorded as 329. Another candidate at this centre, according to the result sheet got 16, 9. 7 and 12 votes in the four streams and the total for that candidate was recorded as only 4. In Machinga North East constituency, about 38 000 voters registered but more than 184,000 citizens voted. There were many areas in which recorded total votes cast exceeded registered voters.

May be these glaring errors were genuine. But there were so many and serious enough to make MEC, the duly mandated authority on our national elections to make an official statement that the only way of obtaining credible results was through verification of received records which would entail physical counting of votes. This decision as you know was challenged and injunctions and counter injunctions followed culminating in the judgement that compelled MEC to announce the results it had received regardless before the expiry of the eight day statutory limit from the last voting day within which results have to be announced.

Q.You got 14 MPs from the recent polls and you had almost the same number in the last Parliament. As a party, are you growing?

A.

Indeed one could easily make that conclusion. Our numbers in Parliament have been declining. At one time we had over 90 members in the august House. But a sober analysis easily reveals that all is not lost particularly given how the election, particularly polling and tallying , was managed. In addition to dismally managed elections, there are other factors that cannot be ignored. But suffice to say that a good number of candidates who won as independents are really UDF who believe in our ideals. The number of official UDF MPs may not reflect how the party is on the ground.

Q. What exactly happened in Machinga, because we heard a lot of stories that at one polling centre people who cast their votes exceeded those who registered?

A.

The result sheet, of-course provided by MEC itself at the National tally, centre for Machinga North East constituency, with about 38 000 total registered Voters showed that that over 184 000 people voted in the constituency. After the attention of MEC was drawn to this rather incredible error, MEC in a statement informed us it had done its investigations and it was error. But there were so many errors even in simple arithmetical additions. That is why MEC was applauded by many stakeholders when it announced its decision to conduct a physical verification of the votes.

We trusted MEC particularly as they kept assuring us and that is why we went ahead to participate in the tripartite elections.. But if you see some of the correspondences we exchanged you can appreciate the skepticism we harboured all along despite the assurances. As it turned out I think time vindicated us.

Q. So what’s the way forward for UDF in Malawi politics?

The way forward for UDF in Malawi politics is for the party to build on its gains and maintain the momentum. We are still a very strong party, one of the big four in the country and I believe still best placed to deliver genuine and real change in this country. It has the most imaginative and youthful leadership. I can confidently say that we led the way in espousing and practising issue-based politics and campaigning while other parties were still stuck in personal attacks and castigation. The National Policy Conference, out of which our manifesto emanated, was a first in Malawi. The future looks very bright and immensely promising.