Malawi's much awaited Parliamentary and Presidential elections may not be held on 18 May as stipulated by law because the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is contemplating shifting the dates to an undisclosed date in June, 'The Chronicle' has established.
Information reaching 'The Chronicle' indicates that the Commission is under pressure to shift the polling day and one of the reasons given will be that it has a deficit of about US$ 14 million, which is equivalent to Malawian kwacha 1.4 billion to run the elections.
Indicators are that the Commission is going to request more funding from donors to meet the shortfall. It is not yet known where all the carefully worked out donor funding for elections have gone with many alleging that the moneys have been diverted so that there is some spending on rigging strategies with the ruling UDF.
The Malawi Electoral Commission proposed a budget of kwacha 25 billion from donors to run the elections but donors refused to meet the amount and made available only kwacha 14 billion after a trimming of the budget. This was done to remove superfluous components in the proposal, which were deemed unnecessary and highly inflated.
It has been learnt that the Commission demanded huge sums running in the millions for transport expenses during the election process.
Spokesperson Kholiwe Mkandawire of the opposition Mgwirizano Coalition told 'The Chronicle' that they even asked the Commission if they were ready to hold elections in May following an announcement the Commission made earlier that they don't have enough funds to run the elections.
- We are not aware of the postponement of elections but Tuesday night we met the Commission for them to explain to us if they were ready to hold elections on 18 May, said Ms Mkandawire. "We decided to meet them because they earlier announced that they do not have enough funds to run election so we wanted to find out if they have managed to source extra funds from donors," she added.
She said they gave the Commission a deadline of last Thursday to respond to their concerns which, among others were that they wanted to get an assurance that the airwaves of state owned media houses, namely TVM and MBC, will be opened to the opposition ahead of the campaigning period.
- We are surprised that they have failed to meet the deadline and we do not know what this means, Ms Mkandawire told 'The Chronicle'. "We just wanted to get an assurance because they made it public that they do not have enough funds for running elections and they were supposed to tell the nation whether the money was available or not," she added.
She further said: "We cannot go to the polls if we are not assured if our concerns are not addressed including funding for elections."
Mr Mgwirizano also asked the Commission if they verified and updated voter registration for those people who died within the period from the last elections in 1999 to 2004. She feared that if they used the 1999 registry it would mean the certificates and names of those who are now dead could be used to cast a vote on 18 May.
- We fear that if they have not updated the registry then they will be creating a loophole for rigging in the coming polls, said Ms Mkandawire.
As we went to bed, Commission spokesperson Fergus Lipenga could not be reached for comment on why they had failed to meet the deadline in responding to Ms Mgwirizano over their concerns and the postponement of the elections because his phone was switched to voicemail.
A member of the international community who preferred to remain anonymous and whose organisation has contributed to the funding for the elections showed concern about this matter, saying: "It is rather strange to us because we [the donors] have allowed for everything in the budget proposal from the Commission. Where has the money gone to, and how does the Commission hope to raise their requirements if they are not open with this matter," alluding to the fact that although the rumour has been around for some time no one is willing to admit to the deficit officially.
In the 1999 elections, the government convened an extraordinary session of parliament to shift the date of the election back. A notice to this effect is expected to come from parliament soon, recalling parliamentarians whose mandate has just been removed by the desolation of the House on 20 March.
By Wezie Nyirongo
© The Chronicle / afrol News
"the moneys have been diverted so that there is some spending on rigging strategies with the ruling UDF."
ReplyDeleteRuling UDF???