One of the NGOs accredited by the Electoral Commission (EC) to carry out voter and civic education in preparation for the parliamentary and presidential elections says it has withdrawn its intention to sue commission for providing inadequate funds for the exercise.
The Peoples Federation for National Peace and Development (PEFENAP) also wanted to take the EC to court for compromising the voter and civic education exercise, saying failure by the electoral body to provide enough funding also meant denying voters the right to making informed decisions.
The organisation's executive director, Edward Chaka, disclosed in an interview PEFENAP decided to change position after realising that the process could derail the electoral process and increase cases of suspicions as well as violence.
Chaka said, however, the development should not throw the EC into the luxury seat but, rather, should act as a warning that, one day, Malawians may stand up and claim their political rights.
"We are an organisation that promoted peace. We thought that the suit could affect peace, which we stand for, and thus defeat the very same objectives we stand for. We have, therefore, withdrawn our intention but we want EC to learn and improve the way it conducts its business," said Chaka.
He said PEFENAP still felt that the general lack of civil society organisations to carry out comprehensive civic education programmes hinged on the electoral body's short-sightedness.
"Elections are a serious exercise, and deserve seriousness. They only come once, I mean the national elections, which means that any failure to engage all citizens in the electoral process could have adverse effects on their political rights," he said.
Chaka said PEFENAP would now engage EC in dialogue with the aim of sorting out the variious problems that cropped up in the run up to the forthcoming elections, as that was the only way EC would improve on the way it worked.
AEP/Richard Chirombo
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