National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust has appealed to various political parties on the Islands district to work in conjunction with the organization in order to increase awareness ahead of the voter registration campaign and self-guard free and fair election on May 21, 2019 polls.
NICE Trust district Officer for Likoma Islands Mr. Patrick Chikoti, made the call in an interview Friday 24th August, 2018, after a one day long meeting with political stakeholders and Pastors Union during the week held at Likoma Community hall.
Chikoti said the Trust cannot work in isolation but needs collaborative efforts with stake holders if they are to achieve successful results.
“The meeting was held to initiate a successful civic education on voter registration in the district; we call upon all political party district governors and aspiring candidates to working hand in hand with us.”
The meeting was held in attendance with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Malawi Congress Party (MCP), United Democratic Front (UDF), Peoples Party (PP) representatives and independent aspirants and discussed various electoral issues surmounting their societies.
According to him [Chikoti] the meeting also hinged on discussing agendas charming peaceful elections by enforcing oneness and coexistence among politicians in the district.
He explained, “We also advised our politicians to promote peace and harmony among themselves because this is a core obligation of initiating violent free elections season.”
Speaking in a separate interview on the same, district governor for the ruling DPP, Golden Chikhanda hailed NICE Trust for coming up with the idea describing it as brilliant, saying this will initiate development in the district as people will focus on achieving the common goal in the society regardless of their belonging to respective political parties.
He said as Politicians, we will be initiating voter registration awareness campaign to our followers during our party meetings to be held which will spread the message further.
“We have vowed to play a major role in sensitizing our party followers so that they get informed of the importance of getting registered. We are also going to encourage them to refrain from violence and promote peace in our political affairs.” He further explained.
Likoma Pastors Union chairperson, Rev. Hebert Likangala said the association has planned to facilitate District prayers where all aspiring candidates and political parties are expected to attend in a work of promoting peaceful elections.
Meanwhile, NICE Trust has since announced that it will provide capacity building initiatives with various party monitors in order to build up their expertise on election monitoring skills when voting time comes next year.
