Distributing of ballots papers start Friday – Malawi Electoral Commission
The Malawi Electoral Commission says it will start distributing the ballot papers to the councils directly tomorrow, Friday, May 16.
MEC’s chairperson Maxon Mbendera told reporters in Blantyre on Thursday that a total of 35 trucks have been identified for each council and the ballot papers shall be transported under armoured security.
The ballot papers have been kept at Kamuzu International Airport since their arrival on May 10 and 11.
He however said ballot papers for Likoma will be airlifted on Sunday, May 18, from the airport.
“The Commission is encouraging all stakeholders who were there when the ballot papers were loaded into the warehouse and indeed when we were sealing the warehouse, to be present and witness the whole process,” he says.
Mbendera says the Commission is encouraging Multiparty Liaison Committee members and others stakeholders to be present at council level when the ballot papers will be arriving so that they can check if the ballot papers received are the same as dispatched from the warehouse at Kamuzu International Airport.
The Commission says it will conduct training of polling clerks in all the 4,445 polling centres in the country on Sunday, May 18, 2014.
These include the teachers and other staff who have been recruited to manage elections at polling centres.
“The Commission is inviting monitors of candidates, political parties and civil society organizations to come and witness the training. They will benefit from the knowledge that will be shared”.
“We are not training party monitors but our staff who will be working on the polling day but the Commission has allowed the monitors to benefit from the training. All monitors wishing to attend the training they should go to the centre where they will be stationed on the polling day,” says Mbendera.
Mbendera reminded all candidates and political parties that they are responsible for the welfare of their monitors.
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