Some electoral stakeholders have raised alarm over inadequate civic and voter education, five months to the September 16 General Election, warning that this could affect credibility of the polls.
The players—including Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum, National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust and some election observers are particularly worried that misinformation and disinformation could fill the void left by credible and impartial civic and voter education efforts.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) expected to carry out voter civic education have since issued a fresh appeal for the K30 billion funding they need to undertake the exercise amid donor reticence.
In an interview yesterday, Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum chairperson Benedicto Kondowe said to date no donor has come forward to support the CSOs in this cause.
“There are very few CSOs that have resources, but those resources are not specifically for civic and voter education. What they are doing is to mainstream the civic and voter education in their other activities but that means it will not be intensive,” he said.
Kondowe has since urged the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to intensify efforts in civic and voter education, saying: “Another way is for parties to share election messages to people as they conduct their campaign rallies.
“But the challenge with political parties is that there is a risk of misinformation and disinformation as they will be fighting to have an advantage over others.”
In a separate interview, Nice Trust executive director Gray Kalindekafe said while the trust has the experience and capacity to carry out civic and voter education nationwide, the demand for such services is huge.
He said there is need to intensify efforts in the provision of civic and voter education to ensure that more people vote.
“Political parties, as a primary player in elections, need to continue promoting positive messaging and providing more support to mobilisation. They should also avoid misinforming the public on crucial emotive issues on the elections,” said Kalindekafe.
He said many institutions that were accredited are struggling with lack of funding and their capacity to conduct civic and voter education has been affected.
Kalindekafe said logistical challenges such as accessibility of the polling stations also need to be looked into.
However, he said during the voter registration exercise, Nice Trust managed to reach out to 20 883 403 persons with its civic and voter education messages.
On his part, rights activist and an international elections observer Moses Mkandawire said Malawi is not doing enough to ensure that those that have registered to vote are reached with voter messages.
He expressed worry that most of the CSOs accredited to conduct civic and voter education do not have resources for the exercise, which he feared may lead to voter apathy.
Political analyst George Chaima said it will take more than MEC and Nice Trust to carry out effective civic and voter education.
He said the biggest challenge is that there is not enough time left.
“The challenge is that MEC only accredits institutions, but there is no funding provided. Government should consider setting aside resources for stakeholders that have been accredited to carry out civic and voter education,” said Chaima.
MEC accredited 116 institutions to provide civic and voter education for the September 16 General Election when Malawians will vote for a president, parliamentarians and ward councillors.
MEC data show that in the 2019 Tripartite Elections there were 2 413 921 registered voters who did not turn up while in the June 2020 fresh presidential election about 1 753 587 registered voters did not cast their votes.
