By Pemphero Malimba:
Four major opposition parties Wednesday gave the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) a 14-day ultimatum to respond to their fresh demands on 2025 electoral processes.
Representatives of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), UTM, United Democratic Front (UDF) and Alliance for Democracy (Aford) said this at a joint press briefing held in Lilongwe.
But Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa asked for ample time before he could respond to the concerns.
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Among other things, the parties want Mec to suspend the first phase of voter registration, which started on October 21 2024.
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They also made a fresh demand for the resignation of Mec Chairperson Judge Annabel Mtalimanja and Mec Chief Elections Officer Andrew Mpesi, claiming that the two were connected to the governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
The parties argue that the exercise was facing numerous challenges, ranging from in efficiencies on the functionality of Elections Management Devices (EMDs), lack of civic voter education and failure by the National Registration Bureau (NRB) to start registering people in voter registration centres following a court order.
“We feel these challenges may hinder others from registering in the exercise,” UDF vice president Rahim Elias said while reading out a statement at the briefing.
DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito insisted the need for Mec to make manual transmission of results during the 2025 elections.
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According to Mukhito, issues surrounding the use of electronic transmission tools raises questions on electoral accountability.
Speaking after the conference, DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said the 14- day ultimatum provided Mec with an opportunity to respond to the matters.
“At today’s press conference, having noted that all our demands were not complied with, we are giving them [Mec] another chance,” Namalomba said.
He said the parties felt that the 14 days period would give a room for the commission to address the issues by, among other things, calling for a stakeholders’ meeting to review the exercise.
“Should the Mec chairperson and CEO fail to resign, we are now going to mobilise people for mass demonstrations,” he said.
Mec spokesperson Mwafulirwa was yet to respond to our questionnaire at press time.
But, responding to the concerns recently, Mtalimanja said the commission was following the law on all electoral processes.
She also said the electoral body would strengthen stakeholder engagement to ensure accountability of the elections.
“This will entail submission of election results from district tally centres to the national tally centre both in hardcopy and electronic form. The law is clear that this must be in consultation with political parties. Thus, the commission reiterates its undertaking, as indicated in the Operational Plan, that it will hold specific stakeholder engagement meetings to address issues relating to transmission of results when the Results Management System is in place. In the development of the system, the commission will be guided by the need for having a system that guarantees the credibility, probity, and inbuilt verification mechanisms at every stage of the process based on the provisions of the law,” she said.
The first phase of the exercise runs up to November 3 2024.
