By Pemphero Malimba:
National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Public Trust has described resource constraints, misinformation and poor delivery among political leaders as some of the factors that have affected efforts to encourage people to take part in electoral processes.
It warns that this could have a negative bearing on the September 16 Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections.
Nice Trust Executive Director Gray Kalindekafe said this while reacting to assertions that electoral processes have, so far, been affected by inadequate civic voter education efforts.
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Public Affairs Committee (Pac) spokesperson Bishop Clilford Matonga made the latest comment on Tuesday when he described as inadequate civic education efforts.
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He said this was one of the factors that culminated in low turnout during the first phase of the supplementary voter registration exercise.
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) conducted the exercise in some parts of the country from Tuesday to Wednesday this week.
The exercise saw only a few Malawians registering at their nearest centres.
Kalindekafe said civic education efforts were affected by financial constraints among accredited civil society organisations (CSOs).
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“Mec accredited 116 institutions to conduct civic and voter education for the 2025 general elections. Not many of the accredited institutions have resources to conduct any meaningful civic and voter education intervention,” Kalindekafe said.
He added that language used by politicians also led to many Malawians shunning electoral processes.
“Political parties, as primary beneficiaries of elections, have spread negativity through negative messaging. A lot of misinformation on the EMDs [election management devices], popularly called “Smartmatic” machines, has resulted in many eligible Malawians shunning voter registration, in some cases until the end of the designated phases,” he said.
He also noted that poor output from duty-bearers was disenfranchising the citizenry.
“There is general political disillusionment with poor delivery by elected leaders. In other words, Malawians are frustrated by the numerous unfulfilled promises from the previous electoral campaign. This frustration is deeply rooted, to the extent that no matter how much civic education is conducted, some people cannot be moved, hence some of the problems that are negatively affecting people’s participation in the electoral process,” he said.
He, therefore, challenged electoral stakeholders to enhance efforts aimed at encouraging Malawians to participate in the electoral processes.
“All electoral stakeholders must intensify community outreach programmes using all available means. It is something that we are already doing but needs to be enhanced to include other community leaders in the traditional, faith and political circles.
“It is also expected that since political parties are the major beneficiaries of the electoral process, we continue to engage them so that they also take an active role in sensitising their followers as well as all people that they reach out to with positive messages that should promote participation in electoral processes,” he said.
He said the organisation was committed to promoting awareness in relation to the forthcoming elections.
“Nice is conducting awareness and mobilisation activities for the current supplementary vote registration exercise using several approaches,” Kalindekafe said.
On its part, People’s Federation for National Peace and Development (Pefenap), which has been involved in previous civic and voter education campaigns, has said there is a need to intensify public awareness on the importance of electoral processes in a democracy like Malawi.
Pefenap Executive Director Edward Chaka said one of the factors that contribute to low voter turnout is the assumption that would-be voters have had enough information on voting processes.
“The truth is that each and every election has first-time voters who may not be conversant with processes. There are also old-time voters who may have forgotten how things work. As such, there is a need for continuous voter education campaigns to ensure that no one is left behind.
“What we have observed is that there has been little voter and civic education during the voter registration phases that have taken place so far, which is unfortunate because elections are a process and not one-off event. Every phase of the process should be treated with the seriousness it deserves,” Chaka said.
Meanwhile, speaking during the inspection of supplementary voter registration centres in Lilongwe Wednesday, Mec Commissioner Emmanuel Fabiano said, at the moment, the commission would not judge how CSOs that were accredited for civic voter education have conducted themselves.
“The civil society organisations that were accredited to do civic voter education have done their work. Until we get the facts from them on what they did and what they did not do and why they did not do what they were supposed to do and who they reached out, we cannot make an assessment to say they have not done a good job or not; so, let’s not rush to make a conclusion when do you don’t have the data,” Fabiano said.
Mec is conducting the supplementary voter registration exercise from January 21 to February 3 2025.
