No voter transfer in Balaka polls
Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has warned that no person who was not in Luwawadzi Ward during May 21 2019 tripartite elections will be allowed to vote in the forthcoming by-election on March 5 2020.
Mec Chief Elections Officer, Sam Alfandika, said they could not go ahead with the election before engaging chiefs and people of the ward and inform them about the electoral process.
“This is a by-election, and if we allow transferring of voters, it means people will come to this side to vote in this particular election when they had already voted elsewhere, so that is an anomaly in every electoral process,” Alfandika said.
He said only those who voted in the ward last year and those that have reached 18 years old in the area are eligible to participate in the election.
Alfandika also highlighted offences that the voters should avoid during the election period.
“We were emphasising that when people are going out there to register as voters they should not put on party colours, they should go there as voters, because putting on party colours at any voting place, or indeed, at voting place or indeed at any polling center is an offence,” he said.
Traditional Authority Matola said since the death of the ward’s councillor, Thomson Bwanali, they have faced challenges in implementation of development projects.
“Development starts at a councillor’s level to the Member of Parliament then Head of State, hence for us, we have had no starting point,” he said.
Luwawadzi Ward has over 20,000 voters who registered during the 2019 tripartite elections and the ward has 20 polling centres.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
