Malawi NGO doubts guarantees of free and fair polls

The executive director of IPI, Rafik Hajat, says there have been
problems with the electoral process – for example, the cameras used for
the photographs on voter identity cards.

"As you know thousands of cameras didn’t work. And the challenges
facing both the registration of voters and verification of voters’
rolls [has] shownme that the whole process was mismanaged," he says.

But Malawi Electoral Commission spokesperson Fegus Lipenga says the
problem was solved by replacing the faulty cameras. And, he says the
registration period was extended to about three weeks to give room to
those who did not register because of the faulty equipment.

"Procurement is in progress. A lot of things have already arrived in
preparation for the polls. The civil society is out there educating
people on how to vote and all other information as regard to elections.
And also at the Electoral Commission we are now working on the voter
list to make it ready for the poll," she says.

MEC’s commissioner, Georgina Chikoko says everything is now in place to ensure free and fair elections.

The executive director of the Institute for Policy Interaction says
there’s been political interference from the electoral commission and
that it ignores the complaints of observers.

The appointment of the commissioners has never been ratified by
parliament andthe commission feels beleaguered. It feels like it’s in
a battle and it has to defend itself," he says.

Government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati responds by saying the
composition of the commissioners is legitimate, since it’s the mandate
of the president to appoint them and no commissioner is affiliated with
a political party.

Some complain that the state media is favoring the ruling party. The
state-owned media has refused to allot free air time for opposition
advertisements because the opposition-controlled parliament refused to
fund them.

But electoral commission spokesperson Fegus Lipenga says the board
offered to fund commercials designed by the political parties that
would run on the state run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and Malawi
Television.

He says the political parties instead decided to advertise only on
private radio stations. So he says the commission is paying for
political parties’ campaign messages on private radio stations.

This year’s presidential and parliamentary elections will be the fourth
to be held since 1994 when Malawi embraced multiparty democracy.

Over the years the stakeholders have been accusing the electoral
commission of supporting the incumbent political party – an allegation
it vehemently denies.

Nyasa Times/VOA