Malawi starts elections preparations

Malawi has engaged a serious gear in the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary elections slated for May 19 next year.
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The Malawi Electoral Commission has since released the elections calendar endorsed by its Chairperson Justice Anastasia Msosa which shows that voter registration commences on June 2 and winds up on September 14 this year.

Msosa said the registration will be held in six phases each taking 14 days and those eligible will have to be 18 year old and above.

Between January 6 and 9 next year contestants will submit their nomination papers while inspection of the voters’ roll will be three months later between March to April 3.

Through out the country, the calendar says actual polling will be on May 19 from 600 hours to 1800 hours.

Malawi Electoral Commission has come up with tentative budget of K5.6 billion (US$40 million) for the 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections to be used for the creation of a new voter registration among others.

Malawi Electoral Commission spokesperson Fergus Lipenga said Lipenga said the tentative figure was subject to negotiations between the pollster, donors and the government of Malawi.

“We intend to use the money to process a new voters’ roll, buy new equipment including digital cameras fro registration of voters and recruit poll experts as consultants among others,” he said.

Lipenga said they are trying to avoid the 2004 elections mess with voters’ roll which failed other voters to cast the ballot as they names had disappeared.

“A good voters’ roll is the basis for a credible elections,” he said.

Lipenga also said they have invited political parties to inspect the electoral the body’s its Information Communication Technology Centre to vent the new voters’ roll system.

He said the parties had also been given seven days, starting from March 1, 2008 to contribute on the better strategies on civic and voter education campaigns as they had earlier on rejected the one MEC had come up with.


As usual, the opposition has dismissed calls by MEC to inspect the Information Communication Technology Centre as mere lip service.

Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) described the invitation as a casual approach to a serious matter and told MEC to appraise the parties first.

“How do we find ourselves in a process of hardware and software?” wondered UDF Director of Research Humphrey Mvula “the invitation should not just be some window-dressing to appear if they were doing everything possible to ensure free and fair elections.”

Recently the Malawi High Court ruled in favour of President Bingu wa Mutharika over nine people he had appointed to the electoral body as Commissioners in March last year whom the opposition rejected.

However, only seven have taken up their posts while two have refused to be sworn-in saying they were not comfortable to work in positions that were embroidered in controversy.

The opposition which has said it will be working with the commissioners of the electoral body under protest due to the nature of their appointment said it wanted to submit names of its representatives in the electoral commission as was the practice during the reign of Mutharika’s predecessor Bakili Muluzi.

According to Lipenga one unique feature of the 2009 elections will be the acquisition of a facility to track fingerprints at a cost of K5 billion which will be used to catch anybody intending to register twice.

The European Union, GTZ, NORAD, USAID and DfID are some of the donors contributing towards the elections through a UNDP coordinated elections funding basket.