Flash red card! PAC demos to be in red: Dec 13 protests to also focus on Malawi socio-economic woes
Public Affairs Committee (PAC) has said they have picked the colour red to be used for the planned December 13 demonstrations to push for the tabling of the the Electoral Reforms Bills which include adoption of a 50-plus-one system of choosing the country’s President to enhance credibility.
However, he influential multi-faith quasi-religious human rights, democracy and accountability watchdog has disclosed that the protests will not only focus on Electoral Reforms but various issues bordering on transformative leadership.
Pac Executive Director, Robert Phiri, has said they will also present a petition to government expressing its position on the current state of affairs.
“The main message will still focus on reform. However, placards will reflect on various issues bordering on transformational leadership as a gap, given that commitments made by the country’s leadership will not have been met by December 13 2017,” Phiri said.
“We have identified the colour red as that to be worn on this particular day by the marchers,”
He said those who do not have red colours will still take part.
Over 60 civil society (CSOs) are said to back the protests and some citizens will march waving red cards — the football penalty symbol for expulsion to undemocratic tendencies.
PAC boss clearly stated that the protestors are not driven by political ends but “the common good.”
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been spreading propaganda that the protests are influenced by the opposition for their own political gains.
But Phiri said: “No political party can influence PAC.”
Phiri indicated that the PAC board had agreed to proposals to have the marches held in all the country’s 28 districts. The body had initially announced that the marches would only take place in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba.
He also said the matter was not only about the electoral reforms, but the inclusion of 50 percent-plus-one as it was one of the benchmarks.
Said Phiri: “We are looking at reforms as a package.”
Government has since circulated three out of six bills for the electoral refoms. The three are Electoral Commission Act (Amendment) Bill , Assumption of the Office of President (Transitional Arrangement) and Referendum Bill.
The Law Commission recommended the following Bills collectively called Electoral Reforms Bills: Constitution (Amendment), Electoral Commission (Amendment), Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Act (PPEA) and Local Government Elections Act, Assumption of the Office of President (Transitional Arrangement) and Referendum.
The most contentious of the Bills relate to the amendment of Section 80 (2) of the Constitution and Section 96 (5) of the PPE Act to provide for a change of the electoral system from a simple majority to a majority of more than 50 percent in the presidential race.
The Electoral Commission (Amendment) Bill as proposed by the Special Law Commission recommends the enactment of the Elections Management Fund to ensure Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is financially autonomous.
It also proposes changes in the appointment of the MEC chairperson as well as composition of the commissioners.
The Referendum Bill, on the other hand, aims to introduce legislation on how to conduct a referendum as one does not exist currently.
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Whether you defend him or not, many people, including the less civilised, know that this Mutharika is the dumbest president ever. The erectoral reforms are for a better Malawi. Not DPP or MCP or any other party. I strongly believe that DPP is afraid of MCP.
To all DPP die-hards who hate the 13 Dec demo, the electoral reform bill is for the benefit of the larger Malawi population and not MCP or the opposition.
The winner is the ordinary person. While the loser are political thieves who easily rig elections and force themselves on Malawians
Why is it that demos will be conducted in towns only? Don’t we have the 80% of voters in the village who should also express their views through perete? Is it because PAC knows that to a villager he sees idiocy in this because there was no civic education to a villager for him to make a thorough decision. The nerves in opposition blood will one day burst because they will make many demos resulting in HBP. At the end of it all the power will be still in DPP come what may. MCP has no numbers, and this is the truth. But Morgan with his shallow thinking, and his too much love for MCP he has chosen to be blind in fear that he can see the truth. Truth pains, but Jesus said the same truth can set a person free. Morgan you will follow your abusa back to ubusa in 2019. Iwe ukakhala woyendetsa mbale ya chopereka kumeneko.
Mr Martin,
I wished you visit a medical doctor to remove mucous which has surrounded your medulla oblongata making you fail to see things positively. The only opposition party which is expected by the opposition members to win in 2019 is MCP. Tell me Morgan which districts in the south has MCP penetrated and convinced people there that they will vote for Chakwera? You are always taking the by-election as a measure that Chakwera can win the presidency? MCP won Nsanje Lalanje by-election through Simeon Khamfula. It won another by-election in Mzimba, and some in the central region. Did it win the following General elections? Why did it not win if the by-elections are a measure of somebody’s popularity, Mr Morgan? Nsanje and Chikwawa have politically been under MCP from Gwanda’s time especially when he led the MCP. Why didn’t MCP win the elections using the popular votes of the two southern region districts in addition to those of the centre? School me Mr Morgan. You should know Mr Morgan that every party has its stronghold. DPP has the Lhomwe built, UDF has the Yao built. Tell me Morgan which stronghold has Chakwera penetrated between the two? Can a difference of 50 votes in Malabada give Chakwera confidence that he is controlling Blantyre? Look here Morgan, the 50+1 bill is a bomb to your MCP. Answer my question Morgan, which STRONG party in the opposition has vowed to support Chakwera in a re-run? It is no secret that UDF is the only remaining strong party after MCP. Does you Morgan believe that UDF will really support Chakwera in a re-run? That’s why I am saying you MCP supporters are just politically blind and are just giving themselves a false hope. Your leaders have been promising a win in all previous five elections but you failed in all. Why should we believe you this time? Morgan, with the help of 50+1 bill DPP will win by landslide whether you like it or not. Now give me your strategy Mr Morgan which makes you think Chakwera will win the elections which Tembo did not do. Have you checked yourself why you failed in the five previous elections? PAC failed to decampaign DPP before the 2014 elections, this time it will be a flop again even if they do their perete a million times before 2019.
Very good fiction you have presented here. Reality on the ground awaits you. MCP is better and sharper than ever before. The times you talk of MCP MPs are different. It was during UDF and UDF was the only strong party in the south. The party provided hope to Malawians. Electricity was there. Water was available. President was an orator and proactive. Aford was strong. There were no new voters who have not seen MCP in power. There has not been any embarrassment of by elections by a ruling party. No maize gates. No cashgate. No tractor gate. No passport gate. No chiefs intimidation. No carnages like this time. UDF was voted with more than 36%. etc etc. Times are different. Osagona…that’s why you lost.
We in the DPP are very afraid now. A opposition mwationjeza. Kumabisalira kumsana kwa PAC eti? Tiona. Tomorrow the sun will rise again. We will sort you out in due season.
Don’t you know it’s hard to approve things in parliament which will affect our cash flow? Tikakudyerani kuti? We will fight tooth and nail to thwart the remaining bills. It’s core to our survival and the very existence of our party DPP. No one can espouse democracy when it will be for the good of the majority but at the expense of we the few elites. This is quiet very disturbing and we are not pleased.
Lazalo mulungu akulange ndithu. Bola Otembo omwe aja. Timayenda pansi Otembo bwino-bwino osati iwe Lazalo.
I invite you Mr president to be reading my comments osati za Santana. If you won by 34%,ur approval rating is below 20%. Mr president,how could u dream of stopping demos thru confront ations? There is tsunami coming bwana and dausi employs a strategy which is 25 years old. Grace wakwiyitsa anthu.nankhumwa please help the president.u are calm when handling issues. Look at the issue with sober mind.
Lets show him Red, wationjeza ndi nkhakamila zake zopanda pakezi.
Its a red card to peter muthalika and his cronies. This is a vote of no confidence, after this march we will call for an early presidential election
At the end of the demos I will tune to all the radios to hear if the results of the demos will be the tabling and passing of the bill. The opposition is buying guns to shoot themselves because the 50+1 will not take Chakwera to Sanjika as he is myopically thinking. He has no backing of the whole opposition for him to win after a re-run. If only with the backing of UDF in a re-run APM will carry the day what more with PP southern region members? Chakwera has know numbers to make him win the elections. Ameneyu adzabwerera ku ubusa 2019. He has just wasted time in politics. PAC made the same noise before the 2014 elections but here is DPP back into power. The red card has been used by CSOs in every move against govt but tell me if CSOs achieved anything all this time. DPP is the beneficially of this bill whether it is tabled or not. Only that the blindness of Chakwera is making him think that the opposition will back him in 2019. Which opposition party is strong to beef up MCP numbers? Politics is a game of numbers, where are the numbers of Chakwera? Can he convince the Eastern region to vote for him? It is the Yao region which will bruise Chakwera if the re-run will take place. No other way round. Mubwerera ku ubusa madala. The same God who denied you a chance in 2014 will be there in 2019.
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Nanga akuyiopera pati 50+1 if all odds favour DPP. Maybe akuona patali than inuyo a Santana.
I’ve been following you Santana for sometime and thought you got some sense but you’re the most stupid headless chicken i mistakingly took for a human. Before the by-elections you swore on your life as well as on the lives of all of us who read your rubbish that MCP would never win not even one constituency in the south especially Nsanje-lalanje. When mcp won everything but one, you disappeared and that prompted many to ask ” where’s Santana? “, as if you would come for a gentleman and admit you were wrong on that one as you always do on 85 percent of the garbage that you vomit here. Only that could salvage what is left as your respect if any, instead you nursed your wounds, resurfaced and change the tune as if you’re talking to toddlers at kindergarten who can’t even recall what was said a few minutes earlier. You can’t compare a political party with churches especially dpp that was born yesterday; ask the old mcp which is now the new dpp, will give you a lesson or two. There are too many wrongs in the dpp and only fools can’t see; and what is wrong is wrong no matter how hard you can try to cover. And you always foolishly claim dpp is got support, which support?; with all the sweet nothings they were promising in 2014 only managed 36% and now about half of that has been everporated due to too many blunders and you’re here making noise yet Peter himself knows things have gone to a point of no return. If i were you, I could keep quiet and hope things could turn the way you wish, you’re not the only one who loves dpp and only you can’t vote dpp into government, this is idiocy plus obssession not support, don’t you have something better to do with your time; a girlfriend or something than trying to keep afloat a ship that will sink anyway and all of us are suffering?
Santana you are a big fool
The Church has spoken and we are ready to demonstrate come 13th December. Government is trying to play hide and seek game by bringing on 3 bills in Parliament yet we know that electoral reform bills are a package of 6 bills.
PAC has been exposed. They are now changing the reasons for demonstrations. People don’t even understand what 50+1 is. We can’t be wasting money on extension of parliament when there is no medicine in hospitals. Foolish and devilish people – this is why some of us don’t believe in the church any more. There is a lot of injustice in the church and yet these people are spending time attacking the government everyday. It’s SAD that MCP and misguided PAC leaders are trying to destroy our country.
Zidzadziwika bwino patsogolo
We organised demo during Bingu’s era in 2011. Even during Ngwazi Dr. HKB’s time we did. Ask another question Tenzi.
Tiyeni naye watsala pang’ono nayenso agwa chagada ngati zijazi.
Nobody can stop the power of the church.
WE ARE GOD’S PEOPLE AND AT THE SAME TIME WE ARE MALAWIANS SO WE ARE GOING TO FAST UNTIL SOMETHING MUST TAKE PLACE , I SAY AGAIN MUST, MUST TAKE PLACE . WE SAVE A HEARING GOD AND YOU YOU WILL GOING TO KNOW THAT THERE IS GOD IN HEAVEN. WAIT AND SEE.
Did you organize demos during JB term when cash gate was discovered?
Two wrongs do not make a right. What is the connection between your question and this demo, if one may ask?
The People of God will go for the demos but the CHILDREN of God wont participate into the demos. I am not backing the govt, but I am trying to connect all what is happening with end times prophecy.
The people of god will go for the demos but the CHILDREN of GOD will not participate into the demos. The churches of people(whose founders are human beings) are asking their church members to participate into the demos but the CHURCH of GOD(whose founder is God Himself) is not encouraging its church members to participate. Pamene kudzamveke kufuulira kwa anthu padziko kuti tikufuna mtendere/ufulu, mtendere, pomwepo chimalizilo chili pafuni chifukwa mtendere weniweni ukudza ndi Yesu osati azikulu a mipingo ayi, atsogoleri a ndale ayi, azibusa ayi, ma CSO’s ayi, koma Yesu Yekha. Owerengawe khala maso. Ma bungwe acina UN, FAO,WHO, ndi ena otere, apangidwa ndithu, koma mtenedere sukufikabe. First work
ld war, second world war, ma interm,arriages nkati kuti mwina tonse tikhale amodzi, ayi ndithu. WOWERENGAWE KHALA MASO
Mateyu 18 verse 7, Tsoka lili ndi dziko chifukwa cha zokhumudwitsa koma zokhumudwitsa sizilephera kudza, koma tsoka lili ndi amene chokhumudwitsacho chidza ndi iye
It doesn’t mean that pano we should sit down and watch the country going into fires… JB is the past my friend, the current problems need to be tackled now… And not wasting time dwelling on the past..
Where were you fool? Joyce Banda brought in auditors and immediately made investigations and arrests so how could people demonstrate when she did the right things. These fools think they know everything and that they own Malawi, we will show them who own this Malawi. malawi does not belong to foolish matchona