The third National Elections Consultative Forum (Necof) meeting held in Blantyreon Friday almost ended in chaos after UDF accused the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) of favouring MCP.
This was after MEC had asked Malawi Congress Party (MCP) director of elections Henry Kamata to make a presentation during the meeting.
Before Kamata took to the podium, UDF publicity secretary Ken Ndanga rose and asked MEC to justify the decision to give MCP the platform.
A visibly annoyed Ndanga said MCP is an interested party in the 2014 Tripartite Elections and wondered why the party should be given the opportunity to make a presentation at the meeting.
“May we, as UDF [United Democratic Front], know the criteria you have used to choose MCP to make a presentation? We look at it as bias because MCP is a party that is going to contest in the elections and we do not know what it is going to present,” he said.
Ndaga told MEC officials, led by Chairperson Justice Maxon Mbendera, that by affording MCP the platform to speak at the meeting, the electoral body is giving the party an edge in the elections.
But defending the decision, Mbendera said MCP lodged a complaint that the registration exercise in the Central Region did not go well.
“We wanted the party to explain where things didn’t go well. This is the decision we, as MEC, came up with,” said Mbendera.
Not satisfied with the explanation, Ndanga stood again and said MEC’s justification lacked substance.
“If the reason is that MCP made a complaint, then it is out of order because we also made a complaint on problems and irregularities during registration,” he said.
After consultations, MEC reversed the decision.
During the meeting, MEC and the National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cement their working relationship.
