By Isaac Salima:
Civil society organisations and some commentators have attributed the low voter turnout in the by-election held in Mtiya Ward in Zomba to lack of motivation among voters.
In the poll, which Malawi Electoral Election (Mec) conducted in the ward last month, Democratic Progressive Party’s Maxwell Finiasi carried the day after getting 505 of the 1,113 total valid votes cast.
The number of registered voters stood at 6,459.
Technical Specialist at Centre for Democracy and Elections Aloisious Nthenda said where there is no motivation, people see no reason to take part in elections.
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“It will require a big study to know the reason behind [the low turnout] but listening to radio interviews and following things on social media and other platforms, it looks like voter satisfaction, in terms of performance of elected leaders, is going down. The elected leaders have to pull up their socks in fulfilling campaign promises,” Nthenda said.
Political commentator George Chaima said challenges the country has been facing have made people to lose trust in elected duty-bearers.
“Most people have chosen to stay away from elections because it does not give them hope. There is a need to intensify civic education among the citizenry to take part in elections because if they continue to stay away, they will not be able to choose leaders of their choice,” Chaima said.
Social commentator Wonderful Mkhutche said voter apathy is a result of several reasons.
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“One of the major ones is that people are not satisfied with the public service, and they do not see the need to vote. It may also reflect on the next elections in 2025.
“What needs to be done is for stakeholders to ensure that they improve on public awareness on the need to vote,” Mkhutche said.
United Democratic Front secretary general Kandi Padambo is of the view that the low turnout in the by-election is a result of voter fatigue.
“It is high time we had a second look at the country’s electoral system. For instance in Zomba, a lot of resources were used to prepare for a huge turnout of voters but only over 1,000 voters came out.
“In other countries, they follow what they call party-based electoral system where, when there is a vacancy, the electoral body just looks at the list of how previous contenders performed and take the runner-up,” Padambo said.
