MEC fails to conduct ballot paper in disaster zone: Urges voters not to panic
The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has admitted that being an elections period, floods occurring in some parts of the the country have greatly affected its operations.
The development has therefore forced the Commission to reschedule the dates for holding the vetting exercise in the affected councils.
A statement released on Tuesday revealed that the exercise failed to take place in three districts.
“The Commission failed to conduct ballot paper vetting exercise in Mwanza, Chikwawa and Nsanje because candidates could not manage to travel from their various places to the council offices,” the statement reads.
Considering the fact that the floods have displaced many people and damaged their household items, the commission acknowledges that some people have lost their voter certificates during the disaster.
But the commission has assured all affected Malawians that this could not be a cause for worry as they will still be able to cast their votes.
“The Commission would like to assure all of them that they will be able to vote without a voter certificate as long as they registered as voters.
“The Commission will also be working closely with all councils to establish whether infrastructures designated as voting centres have been damaged by the floods” reads part of the statement.
MEC has further promised to provide tents for shelter during voting to the flood affected areas.
Meanwhile, as a way of averting the impact of climate change, the Commission is joining all stakeholders in calling on the general public to avoid deforestration and has since strongly encouraged the general public to plant more trees in their communities.
This is a useless MEC team. They should have foreseen this and got prepared, but lust for money and not service is crippling the whole system. Neither the Chair nor the CEO is visionary.