Malawi Electoral Commission suspend electronic cash transfer to polling staff
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec), which is currently conducting post-election review meeting across the country, has suspended electronic bank transfer of honorarium to polling staff for May 20 tripartite elections.
The Commission, according to Chief Elections officer Willie Kalonga, will now “adopt a revised approach” for the remaining payments.
Kalonga most polling staff gave the Commission wrong bank details, as such they could not proceed with the electronic cash transfer.
“While 90% of the almost 90,000 staff have been paid, the process of correcting account information errors returned by the banks for the remaining staff is a time consuming process.
“As such, in the interest of speeding up the final payments for staff whose account information was in error, the MEC is working with UNDP to prepare the logistics for cash payments to be made directly in the Councils,” said Kalonga in a statement issued Tuesday.
Polling staff yet to receive their perks include Constituency Returning Officers, District Election Coordinators, Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers, Polling Clerks, Marshalls, Quality Control Managers and Security Personnel.
He said the Commission will announce through the media and Constituency Returning Offices on the dates and modality regarding these payments.
Kalonga also assured all poll workers that the “funding is safe” and that the Commission will ensure that everyone who worked during polling gets their pay.
“It is in the interest of the Commission to pay the temporary staff as soon as possible for the services they rendered and this matter is being treated as a high priority,” he claimed.
