The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has warned its polling staff against the use of tippex during the forthcoming court-ordered fresh presidential elections.
Tippex (a correctional fluid) was among a plethora of irregularities that led to the nullification of the 2019 presidential elections by the constitution court.
Speaking in Blantyre on Wednesday when he officially opened a Masters of Trainers Orientation Training, MEC Commissioner Moffat Banda said the use of tippex is not allowed in any electoral process.
Commissioner Banda said: “As MEC we are not ready to face another daunting task to justify if the elections were free and fair like we did with the 2019 tripartite elections.
” This time around we have recruited well qualified teachers with a minimum of a diploma and we expect the outcome to be better than the previous elections,” he added.
Commissioner Banda who is also chairperson of the media and public relations committee of MEC maintained that during the 2019 TPE, the commission trained its polling staff against the use of tippex but was surprised to see the result sheets with the correction fluid.
Meanwhile, MEC still has a budget deficit of 8 billion kwacha to conduct the fresh presidential elections.
Commissioner Banda said the commission will still proceed to prepare for the polls as ordered by the court despite the deficit.
