Vehicle scarcity hits MEC

A vehicle shortage crisis has hit the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) three weeks before the May 20Tripartite Elections, authorities have confirmed.

Nation on Sunday learnt last week that the commission planned to have a minimum of 500 vehicles for the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections, but by last week, MEC had secured less than 100.

The vehicles were expected to be voluntarily released by government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

However, in some MDAs, the vehicles are in bad shape (not serviced due to lack of funds) whereas in others officials were reluctant to release them.

“Some departments have asked MEC to service the vehicles that have been idle. Some have mechanical faults, worn-out tyres, missing batteries and other service-related problems,” said a source sitting in the Elections’ Transport Task Force.

The situation is compounded by the fact that MEC’s K18 billion (about $40m) tripartite elections budget does not include hiring of vehicles, a detail both MEC and Treasury have confirmed.

There are now fears that the problem could affect the delivery and collection of ballots, hinder election monitoring activities and negatively affect other poll logistical arrangements that need transportation.

The transport challenges are already hitting hard the ongoing voter verification exercise, with election teams in some areas walking with voters’ rolls or moving them on bicycles between polling centres.

As a result, according to our findings, voters’ rolls reached a day late in some areas due to lack of transport whereas in others, registered voters are being asked to walk long distances to confirm their details.

For example, in Nsanjama area in Thyolo, voters’ rolls arrived a day late while in Thyolo South Constituency MEC vehicles failed to reach the area to collect the voters’ rolls in time.

In Thyolo Thava Constituency, voters’ rolls reached some centres by bicycles.

In Chikhwawa, voters at Makhuwira Court, Ngwengwe, Nyang’ona, Mchacha and Champhanda were being asked to travel to Mitondo area to verify their names because there was no appropriate transportation to move the rolls near their homes.

In an interview last week, MEC chief elections officer Willie Kalonga said government was aware of the vehicle shortage and that the commission believed Capital Hill would provide the cars.

Kalonga said the budget line for hiring vehicles was removed because government had assured MEC that vehicles will be made available.

He, however, was confident that should the situation worsen; Capital Hill would not object to the commission’s hiring even in the absence of a budget for the activity.

“The smooth delivery of the elections is definitely more important than a budget line. Treasury is aware of the shortages of vehicles and, being a member of the Transport Task Force, would not be surprised to see a request for hiring,” he said.

Kalonga said there was a task force chaired by the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) that is mobilising vehicles, aeroplanes and boats that the commission requires for the elections.

“The task force is doing a wonderful job. We trust that they shall mobilise sufficient vehicles as required. This includes the option of hiring where necessary,” he said.

Kalonga said MEC was also aware of some areas within the country that are not reachable by road and that “just like in the previous elections, the Malawi Defence Force [a member of the Transport Task Force] will be ready to help with their helicopters and airplanes.”

Some areas in Malawi, mostly those away from main towns are—geographically and in adverse weather conditions—unreachable.

In previous elections, MEC could hire all-weather vehicles and military helicopters to deliver and collect voting materials, especially on voting day.

Malawi Defence Force (MDF) spokesperson lieutenant colonel Francis Banda said the Army has been discussing with MEC on how to deal with the logistical challenges in the forthcoming elections.

“MDF is coordinating with MEC to assist MEC with ground and air transport,” he said.

On his part, Ministry of Finance spokesperson Nations Msowoya confirmed that there was no budget line for hiring of vehicles and hoped that MDAs will release the needed vehicles.

“Indeed, the MEC budget does not have a line for hiring vehicles. The plan by government is that we are going to give them vehicles from various MDAs. The delay in MDAs releasing vehicles to MEC was mainly because MEC was not ready to receive them,” he said.

A former MEC commissioner confided in Nation on Sunday that in previous elections the commission would draw a budget for hiring vehicles, but in most cases, Capital Hill did not fund it, preferring to get vehicles from government.

The commissioner said the problem, however, was that most of the vehicles that government departments provided to MEC were not road worthy to the extent that the body wasted millions of kwacha to fix them.

“We were not saving money at all because we could still spend millions of kwacha fixing government vehicles that would have been used to just hire proper vehicles for the exercise,” he said.

The commission would end up hiring some vehicles for the polling day anyway, he added.