Ansah defies demands to resign as Malawi electoral chief: Voter credibility crisis
Pollster, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairlady Jane Ansah has ruled out resigning from her position after a crucial biometric voter registration kit was found in Mozambique as calls for her to step down continue to grow louder over how she has handled the matter.
The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and civil society organisations (CSOs) under the banner of Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HDRC) have warned that if Ansah does not resign within seven days, they will mobilise the masses to demonstrate until she leaves her position.
But in an interview Sunday, the defiant Ansah said she had done nothing wrong to merit her resignation from MEC pitching the electoral boady into an unprecedented credibility crisis over the biometric voter registration kit used in the ongoing voter registration exercise which was found on a train in Mozambique ..
“I have done nothing wrong. The kit was found in Mozambique, at first we thought there was mix up, that it ended up going to another voter registration centre just to hear that it was found in Mozambque,” she said.
She insisted that when the kit missed, it did not have viable information on voter registration, saying all the crucial information had already been transferred to a main server.
“There is nothing to worry about, nothing has been tampered with,” she said.
Ansah said no one has been arrested so far, saying the police were working on investigations to find out how the machine ended up in Mozambique eroute from Lilongwe to Mwanza.
The discovery of the machine is Mozambique has alarmed Malawians after the ruling Democratic Progressive rigged the 2014 elections, as the state intelligence operatives burned down ballot papers in Lilongwe to conceal evidence.
Steve Duwa, an election activist said forcing the whole MEC to resign would not be ideal talking into account that there are less than six month before the highly contested polls in May 2019.
“If the MEC commissioners are forced to resign, this means a new set of commissioners would be ushered in and would start from a scratch, this will not be good for the conduct of the elections,” he said.
Duwa however said the explanation by MEC on the missing kit which has since been recovered in Mozambique is still wanting and lacks substance.
Governance and rights activist Makhumbo Munthali told Nyasa Times: “It is now clear that the issue is getting out of hand, and if not handled professionally and the urgency it deserves the matter has the potential to erode a few gains already made in the build up to 2019 Tripartite elections.”
Munthali said MEC cannot only rely on a “simple press statement and conference to address this matter.”
He said: “There is need for MEC to call for an emergency stakeholders meeting to discuss the matter, otherwise if not handled well the issue has the potential to validate the existing perceptions in some quarters that elections in Malawi are rigged. Let MEC engage stakeholders including its fierce critics as a matter of urgency.
“The emergency stakeholders meeting shall also provide MEC to clearly respond to some of the pressing matters raised in MCP and DPP press statements on why MEC did not report to the public and stakeholders about the stolen biometric registration kit.”
The recovered kit contained data for those who registered for citizenship at Ndonda in Kasungu, Nthuwila School in Ntchisi, and Chauwa School in Lilongwe and got lost as it was being transported in an open Tata truck from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) en route to Mwanza, according to Mec.
MEC was informed of the recovery of the kit on September 29 2018 but kept quiet until it was revealed that it has been found.
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Amai opusa kwambiri.anthu akungoba zofunika za dziko iwo ali gone.she must resign.abweretsa nkhondo.
Janet Assah you are very stupid pologmy woman. You have to leave that seat effect from today
i miss hanjahanja
Afraid to resign because you owe DPP millions. Elsewhere this is a scandal of great magnitude and anyone with morals, especially a church leader like you, would voluntarily resign to save your followers embarrassment. Just think for a moment the untold suffering which may follow as a result of your Greed.
Resign madam.
Let this bitch resign honourably. She is a disgrace to many Malawians.
malawians sometimes lets take issues simple and straight forward. amai Ansah akuti all the information is intact so what i can say is let all the parties set to contest in 2019 and all interested stakeholders go with her to centers where you fear data has been tampered and validate her argument SIMPLE! This is the only way to corner her and if possible allow allthe ppo who registered in these centers to verify their information basitu nkhani yatha. Koma basi tikhale tiri wowowo tinatani kodi a Malawi?
This woman really is wicked. Kodi anali chair wa zisankho 2014’ali kuti pano? Usowanso nawe. Mulungu atitetezatu ife
mai nenani chilungamo
Mai Ansah, let me spell it out how serious this missing-but-found registration machine saga is; the machine which is a high national security asset, was found in another sovereign state, with the capability to infiltrate the national voter register server. For all we know, a hacker has already accessed the server and compromised. If MEC is unable to secure, monitor and trace the whereabout of physical machines, how can Malawians be assured that the data the machines capture is secure. Mai Ansah, I don’t think you understand cybersecurity or national security. If you did you would understood why ordinary people are asking for your resignation. At this point the elections in May 2019 have already been declared null and void due the data compromise. The system has been hacked by IT experts residing in Mozambique who had access to the machine and therefor the MEC server containing highly sensitive voter information. As we speak, Mozambicans have access to over 6 million people biometric data and that’s serious. They have accesses and dumped the entire data on the server to their own personal servers. Does it not scare you madam Ansah that due to the incompetence of your leadership and team, the entire nation is at risk.
Check the server to vèrify what ansah alleges about the data transferred
from all laptops just incase other laptops have gone to and fro mozambique to be hacked but were not detected. Resignations will not matter if the laptops have been compromised. This is a big deal.
Ansah GO GO GO moyo wathu ukuuseweletsa ngati uatilenga ndi iwe
The missing of the kit alone will be enough grounds to reject elections results if DPP and its leadership will be declared winner.
Umbava osachitanawo manjazi.
DPP is not even alarmed and worried with this serious issue at MEC.
a Duncan munena zooooooona apa
The bottom line is that biometric data of over 6 million Malawians is in hands of hackers in some foreign country. The data can be used for all sorts of things including committing crime. The missing-but-found machine has the capability to transfer and receive confidential biometric data from and to the main server (residing at MEC). Crooked IT experts have already mined our biometric data and its a high security risk in this cyber crime world. This is a serious compromise on national security by any stretch of imagination. In fact Ansah should be arrested for espionage. She really doesn’t have the nation’s interest at heart and is happy to sell (personal) data to the highest bidder. Big Data is a big issue these days and companies are paying millions of dollars to access data. We Malawians are screwed big time. Our biometric data is out there and could land in the wrong hands including enemies of the state.
Ansah is a disaster for Malawi. Munthu watikwana uyu. She makes me seriously sick.
Chenje ameneyu.
Eeeeeerrr amyi awa abale! This is the kit that is found. If we can allege that other machines are not found and they sneaked in and out of the country through Mwanza Border, Mchinji border, Songwe border etc who would say NO. Mwatchera ku mwezi nkhanga zawona.
The lady has lost credibility if at all she had any, it is very clear that the people we glorify as our lordships in court deserve hell right here on earth, you have shamed and humiliated the legal and judicial profession, no one can trust you and your boyfriend Peter to run this country, u think we have forgoten those kisses with Mathanyula Peter?
Ooouuufff…!!….. AFRICA, WONDERS SHALL NEVER END>>>
it is pathetic that ,despite your tool being lost you never reported anything to the public.can you tell us who was in possesion of the machine as it was missing, no one is arrested whose vehicle were you using at this time of transferring the machine untill it got lost and when did you realise it went missing
Every face tells a story. Look at Jane. Is she really a born again Christian who owns. Citadel Church. Amayi inutu Mulungu adzakuwotchani with atomic bomb for being dishonest. You can’t see how Malawians are suffering under the theft of Mulli and Alamu Pumani Mwakalamba. I don’t know why God is taking away generous people like the owner of Leicester City FC Vichal leaving behind crooks like Matemba, Ansah, Mulli, Dausi, APM Ben Phiru, Ben Botolo, Goodall Gondwe etc. These are terrorizing Malawians.
Malawians please wake up dpp knows it is difficult for them to garner votes in the forthcoming election thus why they are devicing all methods of clinching their seats in all regions. This woman is being used to manipulate the minds of malawians therefore she should resgn from the post.
The kit was never reported to have been lost. Or was it reported it has been found, until someone decided to leak the information. Ugh, unless we chose not to think critically. Otherwise upumbwa at highest level by MEC commissioners and its head. At this point I for one can’t trust from Ansah lest there is scientific evidence that the biometric machine has not been tampered. otherwise data may have been manipulated and people will cry out come the election day. This Ansah lady has attitude……..she need to be checked.
The main issue is apart from data is at stake; Are we guaranteed that data in the machine has malawian names or ghoust names or mozambique name; my understanding is that is machine is also used as data capture machine; Which data was captured; Did the data entry clerk collected names from mozambique and captured them and upload them into main server via VPN; or anyother network;
Mayi ansah is a wicked person
God wish punish you IF you are not more careful: Where is your Friend who declared A win in 2014;
The oppressed are helped by God;
mark my words
To all actors in this drama.
Please take to the streets and get rid of this incompetent and corrupt woman: a puppet of the currently running party.
How can anyone except credible results from someone who is so incompetent. Even as a judge she is corrupt and lazy and cannot be trusted to do anything.
If we don’t act swiftly our next government will sit with a huge “constituency” of voters in Tete.
Kodi inu ansah si yemwe amafuna kukwatiwa ndi Peter mutharika. Tsono nkukhalanso chair wa zisankho zingalongosoke
@Duduzane;
…so one would think then that Ansah would be sabotaging DPP’s chances, rather than enhancing them. As retribution or revenge to APM.
if ansah cant resighn why should chilima resign? za ziii basi?
ANSA TO GO
MEC conduct in the whole issue raises many questions. It’s totally wrong for MEC to defend itself. Malawians are just responding to MEC incompetence. Let them agree that the issue wasn’t handled professionally, thereafter call for a stakeholder’s meeting to pave way forward. Jane Ansah must seek professional advice from Anastanzia Msosa who handled elections with these bad issues.
She must Go!! Go Mama! Malawian, 2019 fire!
So Dr. Ansah thinks we are all kindergarten kids to believe her lousy story. No one can trust her under these circumstances unless one knows clear well what is going on behind all this. So it goes without saying that the honorable thing to do is to pave way to others to sort out the mess and finish the remaining job. She will save the little dignity remaining in her. This is public service and if the people you serve don’t want you I believe there is no cause to justify your existence in such a messed up environment.
Why is DPP not alarmed by the missing machine? Are they not scared that opposition may have tampered with it? Mmmh that tells me who the culprit is. It doesn’t take a genius
Jane Ansah should stop cheating!
By saying MEC thought that the machine was sent to a certain centre, it means MEC doesn’t know how many machines they have, versus how many centres they were using every time they were doing registration? Sincerely by knowing the number of centres, it would have been straight forward to trace if something was missing!!
Secondly, if MEC thought the Machine did not miss, then it means the fact they have been sharing that they immediately reported about the machine to police is fake! It is fake because it is normal to report on things one is certain they have missed! Which is which Jane?
Mzimayi uyu alibe chilungamooooooooooooo!!
Ansah, you cannot even respond to the question “Who had the machine when it went missing?” There are other follow up questions from this issue of missing registration kit that need better explanations.
I REMEMBER ONE GOD FEARING WOMAN WHO RESIGNED FROM A
WELL PAYING JOB AT ESCOM COZ OF CORRUPTION AND ONE INTELLIGENT BRILLIANT VIBRANT
LAW EXPERT FROM LAW SOCIETY RECENTLY #### THE REST CAN’T /WOULDN’T RESIGN EVEN IF EVIDENCE OF EVIL PLAY IS IN
ABUNDANCE ### SO SAD /PATHETIC !!
The machine has been missing for a month.