Former President Joyce Banda has condemned People’s Party (PP) Secretary General Ibrahim Matola for insulting Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Dr. Jane Ansah.
At a NECOF meeting in Blantyre on Friday, Matola shocked other delegates when he said Ansah can leave the commission with her “bras and underwears.”
He later apologised after the other participants demanded that he should retract his remarks.
In a statement on her Facebook page, Banda who is also People’s Party president said the remarks are demeaning.
“There are many things Justice Ansah could have done or said during this electoral process that I do not agree with, but she does not deserve to be spoken to in that manner,” she said.
She added that though Matola apologized, his remarks were an apparent abuse of a woman.
Banda also noted that African women in positions of leadership at all levels are being abused.
She said: “Scandalization, smear campaigns and abusive language [are] being used against them aimed at breaking them when the same does not happen to their male counterparts.”
MEC chairperson Ansah has been under pressure to resign from her position since the results of the May 21 presidential elections were announced last year.
In February, the Constitutional Court nullified the elections over widespread irregularities and ordered fresh elections.
The ruling led to more calls for Ansah to resign with her critics saying she should not lead the commission ahead of the fresh polls.
