MCP and UDF officials were the centre of attraction at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe yesterday when they besieged the cargo terminal and ordered Electoral Commission (EC) officials to open boxes they suspected contained extra ballot papers for rigging.
Chief elections officer David Bandawe was forced to break the seals and open the boxes which contained templates for blind voters and not extra ballot as suspected.
Arriving as early as 7am at cargo terminal, UDF officials led by Charlie Daudi claimed boxes containing ballot papers arrived on Tuesday. He said some people queried the agent who was trying to clear consignment but later disappeared.
Said Daudi: "That raised suspicion as to why someone should run away. Again, only last week we had SDV clearing the ballot papers and this time they used a different agency (CAS Freight). Why should the commission use different agents for the same good?"
Bandawe said this was the first time they allowed parties to oversee the ballot distribution exercise. He appealed for patience and trust for the commission to do its work.
"CAS Freight are also our clearing agents. I am not sure where this is coming from. We placed the order late," said Bandawe.
He took media and party representatives into the warehouse and ordered the 237 kg package to be opened for inspection by both Malawi Revenue Authority officials and the political parties.
Regional Elections Officer Deverson Makwete who arrived at the airport the same time as MCP's Director of Elections Joseph Njobvuyalema and director of research Lingson Belekanyama, was booed by party officials when he asked them if he needed to inform them " when we buy pens."
In an interview later Njobvuyalema said the commission was supposed to inform them of any importation of election-related materials to avoid raising suspicion.
"We are approaching the finishing line. We have consulted each other all the way and we need to be transparent. We were surprised when we received a report that someone was trying to clear cargo for the commission", he said.
The boxes according to Bandawe had 8, 000 templates for all polling centers in the country which visually impaired people will use when voting.
Yesterday's incident follows similar drama last Thursday night at the same airport when MCP placed a seal number 366681 at the entrance leading to the ADL warehouse where ballot papers for the May 19 elections are being kept. This incident also led to arguments with police.
Source: The Nation May 14, 2009
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