Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has come under heavy fire for imposing prejudiced laws towards independent candidates as Malawi moves closer to 2019 Tripartite Elections.
Independent candidates in Likoma have accused the electoral body of barring monitors taking part in the voter registration campaign currently in its seventh phase.
Mr. Maxwell Chisala, an independent aspirant vying for the Parliamentary position in Likoma and Chizumulu Islands constituency said MEC stopped his monitors from being part of the exercise describing.
Chisala bemoaned the development following the restriction of his monitors by MEC officials to be part of delegates harboring the voter registration campaign towards the noble cause of securing free and fair tripartite elections in all the centers in the district, despite the fact that observers for the duly registered political parties are being granted the opportunity saying “it is not a fair treatment.”
He said, “Laws must serve a purpose, they shouldn’t just be created. They are not supposed to be discriminatory; you should allow my monitors to get the experience.”
But reacting on the matter through a questionnaire sent to MEC’s Director of Media and Communications Mr. Sangwani Mwafulirwa to clarify the understanding of this jurisdiction in addressing the issue, the rule of the electoral law in question has been there in the constitutional law of the electoral body and it has been effective in all the districts in the ongoing voter registration campaign since phase one.
Part of the questionnaire reads, “no candidates places their monitors during voter registration expect registered political parties, CSO’s and others place observers. We are doing voter registration and not of candidates.”
“Independent candidates will place monitors during polling and they should ensure they register as voters to be able to contest.” It further reads.
Those were the remarks Mwafulirwa made to clarify on the matter and that the law is not discriminatory in any way as purported by Chilasa since he has not been the only party concerned with the virtue of the jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the voter registration campaign is now in its final phase and in Likoma and Chizumulu Islands, the exercise commenced on 27 October and it will end on 9 November 2018 expected to run for 14 days in order to register all eligible voters in the district to be able to cast their vote come 21 May 2019 polls.
