Parliament Holds Key To 50+1 Electoral Implementation

Arthur Nanthuru

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has indicated that the parliament shoulders responsibility of setting up provisions to govern the presidential election runoff.

Commissioner Arthur Nanthuru heading Legal Affairs Committee of the commission told journalists in Lilongwe that the committee is waiting for the parliament to provide how the commission shall proceed in an event where no presidential candidate gets majority votes.

Nanthuru

He said the biggest impediment to the new threshold of 50+1 which has been an issue that appeared four times in courts since 1999 has been the lack of guidelines of what happens when no candidate has managed to get majority votes.

“Rules for the runoff has not been determined” he noted adding; “My opinion is that the parliament must give us guidelines on what happens” and “has to define how we can resolve this.”

He also mentioned that in absence of parliament guidelines, the commission shall sit with legal committee to come up with proposals that can work in order to comply with Constitutional Court ruling which interpreted the majority as being more than half of the total vote cast.

Nanthuru added; “We can also go back to the suggestion made by parliament in February” which the president refused to assent. The suggestion provides that the runoff elections be held a month after the elections.

During a press conference on Saturday evening in Lilongwe, the new Chairperson for the commission, Justice Dr. Chifundo Kachale said he is comfortable working with all commissioners and will continue with team work spirit to ensure that they all deliver credible elections.

Justice Dr. Chifundo Kachale

“Don’t drag us into history. I believe in my team, I have full confidence in my team and we will work as a team.” Assured Kachale who was reacting to media question on how he feels working with two commissioners Linda Kunje and Jean Mathanga who worked in the last commission that was declared incompetent by the High Court sitting as Constitutional Court.

Linda Kunje (L) Chifundo Kachale (C) Jean Namathanga (R)

He also indicated that the commission has a deficit of K8.7 billion from the total budget of K38.3 billion since parliament approved only K29.6 billion whose disbursement has met with challenges up to date.

The High Court sitting as Constitutional Court on February 3, 2020 nullified the 21 May, 2019 presidential elections due to several irregularities and ordered fresh presidential elections within 150 days and on 9th June 2020, the National Assembly has set June 23, 2020.

Key Highlights Of MEC Preparedness For June 23, 2020 Presidential Elections

The new commission which was appointed on June 7, 2020 has assured the nation that it is geared to deliver credible elections come 23 June 2020.

Kachale

Kachale has estimated that almost 55-60 percent of work has been completed.

1. On Tuesday 9th June 2020 the Commissioners took oaths and later the same day Commission received communication from the Office of the Clerk of Parliament advising that Parliament had passed a Resolution appointing the 23rd June 2020 as the date for the Fresh Presidential Election.

MEC Commissioners discussing

1. 11th of June 2020 the Commission Gazetted the 23rd June 2020 as the Polling Date, subject to change on the basis of the legally established processes.

MEC Commissioners briefing media

1. On the 11th June 2020 the Commission received formal communication from the Printer of Ballots who had been formally engaged using established public procurement procedures. The Commission issued authority to the Printer to commence performance of the assignment to help receipt of the ballot papers in the country on 19th June 2020 which is three days to the Polling Day

MEC Commissioners with Lazarus Chakwera
And MCP-UTM Alliance officials

1. Meeting with all the three contesting Presidential Election candidates between the 12th and 13th June, 2020.

1. Developing Calendar of electoral events. The critical dates for the remaining key activities based on that calendar of events are as follows:

• 20-22 June, 2020: Dispatch of polling materials
• 21 June, 2020 at 6.00am: End of official campaign
• 22 June, 2020: pre-inspection of ballot papers and polling materials in all polling stations
• 23 June, 2020: polling in all centres from 6am to 6pm.

MEC Commissioners briefing media

1. Training programs for the polling process are underway. Already Master Trainers who will in turn train the Presiding Officers have been trained. Returning Officers and members of District Elections Supervisory Teams were also trained by 6th June 2020. Training of Presiding Officers starts on 13th June 2020 in all the Councils to end on 20th June 2020. The rest of polling staff will be trained on 22nd June 2020 within the polling stations. During this training on 22nd June, all the three contesting political parties are invited to send their party representatives to observe the training which will start immediately after finishing of pre-inspection of polling materials.

Kachale (L) & Mathanga (R)

1. Procurement of Materials: the Commission is anticipating about 37 types of materials. Some materials are very critical that an election cannot be held if they are not available.

• Security Seals Padlocks: The Commission was expecting 72,000 padlocks but not even a single padlock has been delivered.
• Security Seals Plastic: The Commission was expecting 72,000 padlocks but not even a single padlock has been delivered.
• Polling booths: The Commission was expecting 15,000 but only 1,200 have been supplied to the Commission.
• Envelopes: The Commission will require120,000 envelopes and the Commission has not received any.
• Badges: The Commission will require 72,000 badges but only 22,200 and 49,800 are yet to be delivered.
• Pens: The Commission ordered 60,500 pens but has not received any single pen.
• Rubber bands: The Commission will require 12,500 and has not received any.
• Paper towels: The Commission ordered 37,500 and has not received any.

1. Possible Mitigating Measures: Measures will include seeking alternative suppliers. For example, the Commission is considering that the supplier for ballot papers should also supply the security seals padlocks and the plastic security seals. The Commissioners will be reviewing the capacity of some of the suppliers. This will include physically visiting the suppliers to determine if the suppliers indeed have capacity to supply the expected materials. The Commission has set up special committees for swift review of the procurement challenges for immediate rectification where possible and for coming up with mitigations if any can be found.

• Of the materials that have been reported as supplied and delivered, the Commission will do a physical audit at all the warehouses where the materials are being kept.
• The Commission may where absolutely necessary seek an extension to the date of elections if the above challenges are not resolved timely.

Jean Mathanga

1. On missing names in the voters’ register:

• People who registered in preparation for the Fresh Presidential Election, with their voter certificates starting with “F” are not eligible voters following Supreme Court of Appeal Judgement directed that only those who registered for the 2019 Tripartite Election should vote this time around.
• The mobile phone verification through SMS had unforeseen technical challenges but engineers have worked tirelessly to resolve the issue and now the service is up and running on Airtel and TNM and so far over 23,000 registered voters have managed to verify their details.

• Others that used the SMS platform were entering their voter certificate number omitting “T” and the system could not locate them.

Olivia Liwewe

• The Commission will leave the *720# platform to be operational up to the polling day. Registered voters are free to verify their details. Should they encounter any challenge they should send an email to complaints@mec.org.mw .

• On the polling day, the *720# will be a “polling assistant”. By dialing *720# registered voters will be able to know the number of their polling station in case where there are multiple stations at one school. In cases whereby a voter comes with a valid voter certificate but the name is missing in the voters’ roll, the polling staff will check using the *720# SMS platform to confirm whether the person is a registered voter and where they registered. This will solve cases whereby voters present themselves at wrong centres.

Sam Alufandika: Chief Elections Officer

• On polling day bring voter certificate. If the photograph is missing but the name of the person is appearing in the register, the person will be allowed to vote.
• The same Voters Rolls as was used in the 21st May 2019 Tripartite Polls will be used for these polls. All stakeholders have copies of that document and in due course should be able to verify whether the Voters Rolls being used has been manipulated in terms of bloating numbers of voters or otherwise.
• All those that registered for the 2019 Tripartite Election are eligible to vote, whether they voted in 2019 or not, it does not matter, as long as their name is found in the voters’ roll. Those who lost their voter certificates by whatever means whether it was: stolen, confiscated, they sold it, washed away during floods, they are still encouraged to go and vote where they registered. Polling staff will check for their details in the voters’ roll and if found they will be allowed to vote. Even registered voters who did not verify their details, they should go to vote.