Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says printing of ballot papers has started in Dubai and the commission expects to receive the papers on 19 June, 2020.
The commission’s chairperson Chifundo Kachale said this in a statement on Thursday.
He said the commission held a meeting on Thursday and resolved that the printing of ballot papers should begin immediately. The resolution was communicated to Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing.
“The printer has indicated that it will take a minimum of seven days to print and package the ballot papers. All factors remaining constant, the ballot papers and associated electoral materials maybe be received by the commission on 19th June, 2020 at Kamuzu International Airport in the presence of candidates’ representatives,” said Kachale.
He added that the commission will engage candidates on anticipated challenges and possible mitigation.
The electoral commission is expected to hold Presidential Elections on June 23. During the 2019 elections which were nullified by the Supreme Court, ballot papers arrived in the country a week before polling day.
The new MEC chairperson is already demonstrating possession of rare leadership skills. Successful leaders do not pretend that there are no challenges to be faced, rather after identifying possible threats to the success of a project, they formulate measures to counter the threats instead of throwing in the towel and accepting defeat even before the challenges actually show up! The new MEC chairperson has done well to acknowledge the presence of such challenges which I am sure are obvious even to the mind of average intelligence. He has also demonstrated that he is not the kind of business man whose immediate response is to abandon a high risk project because in a normal business environment, the most successful business persons have largely been the higher risk takers. This not adventurism but rather strong-willed and ‘never-say-die’ crop of life changers. I see all such leadership skills in our new MEC head. I see transparency, objectivity, accountability and zero unwarranted ‘secrecy’ in his dealings with the public. Let’s give this man our utmost support and the FPE will be a resounding success, leaving the losers (whoever it may be) completely flabbergasted in search of any plausible reasons to challenge the outcome of the elections. I believe although 2020 has been a truly rough for us but at the same time it is a year Malawi has made history not only on the African continent but also the world over.