The National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust has appealed to traditional leaders in Nkhata-Bay district to avoid favouring some political affiliations in their decision making as the country edges closer to the Fresh Presidential Elections (FPE).
The civic education officer for the Trust (NICE) Lucy Kalua made the plea in an interview on Friday at Traditional Authority (T/A) Mkumbira in Nkhata-Bay Central, saying the notion is significant more especially during this time of campaigning period.
Kalua said as the authority for civic education in the district, her office is encouraging all traditional leaders to treat each and every political affiliation the same way to avoid tension and violence, in a bid to achieve free fair and credible elections.
“We conduct various interfaces with the traditional leaders to discuss how best we can all move forward peacefully by encouraging them to be fair and allowing all political parties run their affairs in their territories withought any infringement.
“Resources and opportunities must be shared equally in the societies in terms of space when these political parties need to conduct their campaign rallies.” Kalua explained.
Emphasizing on the matter, the district commissioner (DC) for Nkhata-Bay Rodney Simwaka said the political parties also have a crucial role in achieving a smooth campaign period by abiding by the guidelines that constitute to the running of the initiative.
Simwaka said: “Rules still remain the same, we are so organized that if political parties come to notify us about their activities, we put them in our register and then allows them to proceed to make sure that the dates for venues do no collide which most likely fuels violence.”
Meanwhile, Nkhata-Bay district is expected to embrace the voter verification exercise which is anticipated to phase in from 23rd to 27th May 2020 in readiness for the forth coming FPE.
