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The Electoral Commission has come under fire from election stakeholders for not examining complaints and evidence from the media, opposition parties and civil society organisations on the snatching of voter certificates by the ruling UDF officials.
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) spokesman Salule Masangwi said NDA is compiling evidence and will take the matter to court adding that his party already supplied the Commission with evidence on the malpractice by UDF but they have kept quiet.
Masangwi said the Commission’s press statement last week where it warned of individuals who are snatching voter certificates fell short of mentioning UDF as the main culprit.
“The commission knows that there is no any other party that is snatching voter certificates. You know how they react when any other party is involved in a thing like this. We wonder why they drag their feet whenever the UDF is involved,” said Masangwi.
He said the Commission should have called the individuals named in the Weekend Nation to answer for the charges.
MCP second vice president Nicholas Dausi said they raised their concerns to the Commission on UDF snatching voter certificates but they have not received any response on what action they have taken on the UDF.
“This is a very serious matter and if there is no response by next week, we will seek an appointment with them because this needs to be sorted out as soon as possible. Snatching voter certificates is tantamount to rigging,” said Dausi.
He also said MCP will come out hard on the Commission during a National Elections Consultative Forum (Necof) meeting to find out what action the Commission has taken on the UDF.
Mgwirizano Coalition legal team member Kamuzu Chibambo said on Tuesday the coalition would be meeting over the weekend and one of the issues on the agenda would be the snatching of the voter certificates by the UDF.
“Our position on this will be known on either Sunday or Monday after our meeting,” said Chibambo.
Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) said they also discovered UDF has been confiscating certificates in Embangweni in Mzimba, Dwangwa in Nkhota kota and that they reported the details to the commission.
Mesn coordinator Moses Mkandawire said the UDF is not promoting democracy by snatching the voter certificates.
“Why are they getting voter certificates when they claim to be popular and democratic? We are putting all these reports into a data bank and certainly we will have to sit down and see the way forward,” said Mkandawire.
He said Mesn will intensify a campaign of sensitising people against selling or giving anyone their voter certificates.
Public Affairs Committee (Pac) chairman Monsignor Boniface Tamani said they expect the Commission to act rather than merely warning that there are some individuals that are snatching voter certificates.
“As Pac we don’t have a legal mandate of punishing individuals or parties that are snatching the voter certificates, that mandate rests with the Electoral Commission. But as Pac we will continue urging people not to surrender their voter certificates,” said Tamani.
Asked what the Commission has done following reports and complaints of vote snatching across the country by UDF officials, Chief Elections Officer George Chimwaza said on Wednesday this week the Commission will look at the reports at a time convenient to it and should not be pushed around.
“The matter is in our hands and we do not need to tell you when we are looking into this. When we are finished, we will let you know,” said Chimwaza.
But he said he has so far not seen any evidence from either opposition parties or NGOs implicating the ruling party in the snatching of the voter certificates.
“I need to look at the evidence before I can respond. At the moment, those are just allegations until we have investigated and verified,” said Chimwaza.
Last week Weekend Nation revealed that UDF officials in Chief Chigaru’s area in Blantyre snatched voter certificates from 57 villages which prompted the TA to get back the documents. This angered the Blantyre North Constituency Office which warned the TA in a letter dated March 2, 2004, against frustrating its efforts. The newspaper also carried serial numbers of some of the certificates which the chief retrieved from constituency officials.
The MP in the area Paul Maulidi who is also UDF deputy secretary general said in an interview there was nothing wrong with the exercise which he said was meant to enable the party to know how many of its supporters had registered as voters.
But UDF publicity secretary Ken Lipenga disassociated his party from the malpractice.
Commenting on the incidents in TA Chigaru’s area, Lipenga said Maulidi who took the chief to task for blocking his party’s move, was “only writing down names of UDF supporters and I see nothing wrong with that”.
He accused the newspaper of misquoting Maulidi alleging it was no longer practising journalism. Maulidi’s interview is on record.
Lipenga said noone has had his or her voter certificate taken by the UDF challenging the Weekend Nation to give out names of the people who have had their voter certificates taken by the UDF.
One of the registers which Chief Chigaru confiscated from UDF officials in Blantyre North constituency show names and serial numbers such as Annie George 0637093672, George Edward 0637327151, Jurita Juma 0637311146 while another register showed Steveria Jackson 308763833, Katalina Kondwani 20145002 and Lesten Morah 0637073496.
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