Civil Society pushes for local government elections
Civil society leaders in Malawi have urged the Malawi government not to renege on its constitutional duty to call for local government elections a year after holding the presidential and parliamentary elections.
According to the Malawi Constitution, local government elections shall be held one year after general elections. But since coming to power in 2004, the administration of President Bingu wa Mutharika has never held local polls.
This has, among other things, led to Malawian cities running without mayors and councilors.
Local Government and Rural Development Minister Goodall Gondwe (pictured) 
has since said the Mutharika administration has shown commitment to holding the local polls in May 2010 after it factored 1 billion Malawi kwacha in the 2009/10 national budget for the local polls.
“There is a budget line for the local polls so that means government is committed to holding the polls,” he said.
But Alloysius Nthenda, Chairman of the Malawi Elections Support Network (MESN) – a group of civil rights NGOs, said putting money in the budget was one thing but holding the polls was another.
“Every year government put aside money for the local government elections but we haven’t had local polls for years,” he said
Nthenda said despite government claims that it had set aside money for the polls there was nothing on the ground to indicate preparations for the polls.
“The electoral commission has no calender,” he said. “This is affecting our planning for civic education.”
Malawi Electoral Commission spokesman Fegus Lipenga confirmed that the commission had no calender for the local polls.
“We have no calender because nobody has instructed us on the local polls,” he said. “If we get the instructions we will be ready.”
The civil society leaders fear that without elected local assemblies, democracy will be defeated.
Billy Banda, head of Malawi Watch – a civil society organisation affiliated to MESN, said as the situation is now, grassroots members have no say in how they are being governed.
“What we have is a top-bottom system where the executive arm of government just dictates issues without input of the grassroots,” he said. “This is a serious flaw in our democracy.”
Gondwe, the Local Government and Rural Development Minister, admitted local government elections were a constitutional requirement that cannot be wished away. He, however, said statutes governing local assemblies had to be re-worked.
“We are currently reviewing the roles of counsellors to make them more effective,” he said.
Analysts say the executive arm of government and Parliament may not be keen to have elected councilors for fear of competition for Members of Parliament (MPs).
“Because councilors are in touch with the grassroots every day, they may own development projects and may challenge MPs during general elections,” said an MP who asked for anonymity.
Gerard Chigona, a political scientist, said that fear may come about because the role of an MP in Malawi is not clearly defined.
“MPs are supposed to formulate laws while counsellors are supposed to be looking after development issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Malawi Electoral Commission has announced Parliamentary by-election on 12 January, 2010, to fill vacancies in Parliament. The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of veteran politician John Tembo and the former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) of former president Bakili Muluzi lost a seat each after an MCP MP died mysteriously on a private trip to South Africa and a UDF MP was disqualified after a court conviction.
The MCP now has 26 seats, down from 60 after 2004 polls, while the UDF now has 15 MPs from 49 in 2004.
On the other, hand the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of President Mutharika scored a surprise landslide, scooping 114 seats in the 193-member Parliament.
Small parties – the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), and the Malawi Forum for United and Development (Mafunde) – have one MP each while 30 MPs went to Parliament as independents although most of the have pledged allegiance to the DPP.–Pana
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