Malawi army nearly opens fire over ballot papers in Karonga

May 19, 2019 Nyasa Times 32 Comments

There is tension building up in the shore district of Karonga following a fracas that occurred Saturday night in which deployed Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldiers almost opened fire at some civilians and some men donning Malawi police uniform who claimed wanted to verify the authenticity of ballot papers that had just arrived.

Dispatching of ballot papers

Nyasa Times has learnt that the incident, which occurred in Karonga Nyungwe Constituency, raised a lot suspicion on the part of the soldiers who had sensed foul play.

“There were civilians and some people donning Malawi police uniform who came to where the ballot papers were being kept for safety and asked the soldiers that they verify the ballots.

“But when the soldiers got suspicious with the group, the did not allow them to do. The latter could not comply, a development which brought about some turbulence that nearly forced the soldiers to open fire,” said Jordan Simeon-Phiri, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) stringer in Karonga.

According to Phiri, the situation is still tensed up as the citizenry is “not yet certain” whether the men that donned police uniform were bonafide members of the Malawi Police Service (MPS) or not.

The development comes days following rumors that the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was working on a plot to have its cadets act as security personnel during polling day while donning police uniform.

MPS, through its national spokesperson, James Kadadzera, released a statement quashing the rumors as “false.”

On Sunday, UTM Party presidential torchbearer, Saulos Chilima, also made allegations that he was aware of the presence of one Augustine Chihuri—Zimbabwe for Commissioner General of Police—who was in the country, hired by the DPP, to deploy the party’s cadets who would work as MPS “impersonators” on Polling Day.

Chilima demanded that Chihuri must “must leave this country immediately.”

Meanwhile, there is also more tension in Karonga over a satellite polling centre at Karonga Prison where no voter is said to have registered.

“There is no one who registered there. There is no presiding officer. Who is going to vote there? There is another polling centre at the old Karonga Hospital which is just 20 metres away. There is something fishy going on,” said Andrew Mwakaseghe.

But Nyasa Times has learnt that ballot papers have been dispatched to the ghost centre.

Pollster MEC chairperson, Jane Ansah, is expected to hold a presser Sunday afternoon over some of the on-going electoral developments.

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32 replies on “Malawi army nearly opens fire over ballot papers in Karonga”

  1. Makes you wonder. There has been a lot of tension leading up to this moment. There is deep underhanded tactics in Karonga if we go buy the last general election results. You don’t to be Einstein to see what is going on.

  2. Mai Ansah bwanji akutumiza ma ballot paper ma centre awiri omwe anthu sanalembetsepo why why Mai awa akutiopsyano tsopano.

  4. mdf is our benevolent force….they are Malawians coming from our respective homes. their concerns are our concerns too…but as we tackle this we need to look into this issue without spectacles in our eyes….we have heard speeches from the winning CHILIMA that our mdf soldiers are being robbed their own sweat of risk allowance of over 14 million per person by fellow senior mdf officers and instead our strong and courageous soldiers are getting only 12 to 13 mita in sometimes four phases when other soldiers from other countries are getting a UN money equivalent to 28mita MK….it is very pathetic to learn this happening within our mdf.if really this is happening then we must know that some officers would shield this current regime to ascertain the continuation of this malpractice…. kodi galimoto ya mdf itanyamula ma ballot papers ovota vota mungaigwire bwanji??…we want more brevity from you our strong soldiers kuti musalole andale kukunamizani chifukwa kunkhondo kuja mukumakavutikako nokha andalewa ali phee kuno….so make sure that the will of the people is respected…we feel you more especially mukamajoga mmamawa ….

    1. Which nosense T…..reporters should just report what is on the ground and we will judge as Malawians

  6. aaaaa kodi uyu muti wa UTM mesa amatchalenja kuba ameneyi mesa ndamene anabera ma vote 2014 kuti Peter awine nde lero akunva pain bwanji azinzake akumubelaso.

  7. Could even be that MEC senior officers, including the Chairperson, are part of the rigging scheme. Why send the ballot papers to a Ghost Polling Centre.
    You see, DPP’s strategy has been to bankroll police, MDF, MEC, you name it. DPP can afford that as they have dubiously amassed lots of money

  8. If you remember my comments. I said it was too early for MEC to tell people that there will be no fraudulent election. Thieves are always ahead on their plan. It will be worse than 2014 election prepare that. More chaos is coming

  9. We would all want to see the back of dpp and Malemu Pulofesa Arthur Peter Mutharika. We were happy take UDF leave the stage when Bingu left it. That’s one of the reasons why Bingu won the second term. I am now beginning to doubt if that was a genuine landslide victory for Bingu.

  10. zachitika ku Karonga zi most likely sikokhako ayi. Its possible zikuchitikanso elsewhere in the country. Election monitors onetsetsani kuti izi sizikuchitika mmadela mwina dziko lonse la Malawi. A MEC musatibetsele voti yathu. Mabalot papers amene akupita ma centre osadziwikawo awapatsa ndi ndani. Show Malawians if the prison polling center is genuine. Malawians, we must demand that MEC gives us the information on the official total number of polling centres in the country. All contesting parties should be given a record of the official registered polling centres. Apobi,chinyengo chikhalapo. If prisons are not supposed to be poling centres, let the party representatives and other election monitors inspect all the prlsons in the country just to make sure this is not
    happening country wide

  11. Postpone Elections now. The buglarized office in Lilongwe is a crime scene thus all election materials ought to be quarantined. The police failed to guard the offices. Can they be trusted to figure out what happened? Also any discrepacies prior to election day suggests a bigger problem in the offing. There is no time to fight for fairness after the election. Fight for transparency now.

  12. Does everyone remember when Kuchingale,. Assistant to SKC was caught trying to rig in Mchinji during by elections atavala ngati MEC official. These are the same tactics. SKC is just telling us what their plans were when he was still in DPP. That’s why he wanted to run under DPP in the first place. His own ideas are back to haunt him.

  14. Malawi Defense Force , we are banking our hope in you, Police is a used machine for the DPP

  15. Komatu a DPP musamale , izi ndizosiiyilana…mukuputayi ndi civil war. Let people vote and decide for Malawi. Vuto lokuba ndilimeneri mukufuna kukakamila m’boma.

  16. Mwalinga ndi register imene ikupezeka pa chitsamba cha MEC, OLD HOSPITAL ndi centre nnambala 02056. 2014 anthu olembetsa adalipo 3578 pa chisankho cha 2019 adalembetsa anthu 2242. Azibambo 1158 ndipo amai 1084. Funso langa ndi loti kodi maprisoner amakavotera kuti, ku prison komweko kapena amawatenga pagalimoto kuti akavote kwao? Eish! Kwatentha. Game ya kulah.

  19. Chauta akatheni onse okuba ndi achinyengo anthu Anu Ambuye Chauta avutika kokwana lilemekezeke dzina lanu kunthawi zonse 🙏

  27. This is very bad. This is dpp plan to create bogus poll centers in order to put in already marked Peter Muthalika fake votes. Nkhanga zaona that is null and void those centres shall not accounted for.

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