By Pemphero Malimba:
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has warned its staff from engaging in partisanship in the course of their work ahead of next year’s general elections.
Mec Commissioner Emmanuel Fabiano said this Wednesday during a training for constituency civic and voter education assistants (CCVEAs) held in Dowa.
CCVEAs are temporary staff members deployed to all constituencies to conduct civic education on behalf of the commission.
Fabiano said Mec staff members were supposed to be neutral in their operations to ensure credibility of the elections.
“When we do work in the Malawi Electoral Commission, we are required to be as neutral as possible and treat everybody equally,” he said.
He said Mec would be compelled to fire those caught in the act.
“If we find that they are aligning with political parties, then we cannot allow them to continue to work for the Malawi Electoral Commission. We will release them to go and do other things that they want to do,” he said.
On his part, political and governance expert George Chaima commended Mec for its efforts to discourage its staff from engaging in unprofessional acts.
Chaima warned that partisanship had the potential to affect the outcome of the September 16 2025 Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections.
Mec is expected to have one CCVEA in each of all the 229 constituencies in the country.
Last week, the commission completed its pilot voter registration exercise in selected councils where it was testing election management devices that would be used in the elections.
The commission is expected to embark on the actual voter registration exercise on October 21 this year.
