Ansah says Malawi Electoral Commission in K8 billion deficit
Embattled chairperson of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Jane Ansah has disclosed that it still faces K8 billion funding gap in its budget to be used ahead of the fresh presidential election.
Ansah made the remarks during a press briefing on Thursday at Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre.
She said donors like United Nations Development Program revealed that they will not help with the needed money.
“This is because the donor community questioned the legal framework that would guide the elections and cited economic challenges arising from COVID-19,” she said.
Ansah added that the commission is, however, proceeding with preparations for the elections as a fulfillment of the court order.
“Currently, the commission is doing everything it can just to obey the order by the court, because if we fail, it will be in contempt of court.
“As of now, we are doing so many things at once, for example, we are in the process of voter registration and on the other hand, we are doing presentation of presidential nomination papers just to make sure that elections should be held in a space of 150 days which the court gave us for the fresh election.
“The commission continues to face the threat of COVID-19, but it still has to print ballot papers outside the country which will be a problem,” she added.
However, the MEC Chairperson was non committal on whether the election will take place in a given period of time.
MEC set July 2 to conduct fresh presidential elections after the Constitutional Court nullified the May 21, 2019 presidential results.
I remember the matter was voted on during budget preoaratiins.
Why now say there is no money when the budget 38 Billion has been set for the election.
Last year’s election was paid for by Malawians now you are asking donor community,
Democracy is not cheap I remember.
Nyasa Times reporter do your homework,
she is incompetent asiye azipita azake agwire ntchito
MCP please tell Symbie to give the deficit for the election.
Eeeeeeee…….! and yet u used money that could have cushioned this if u didn’t waste tax payers money on those SA lawyers
If elections are not held there will be no elected president to run the country because clueless Mutharika was only running the country on court order! The mistake clueless Mutharika and DPP are making is believing that if there are no elections clueless Mutharika (and DPP) will continue running the affairs of the country and that is why they continue throwing spanners in the preparations for the holding of elections. They are able to get funding from Treasury for many of their evil and sinister programmes but claim can not do the same for the elections.