Malawi Electoral Commission threatens PP
Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has been embroiled in war of words with the opposition Peoples Party (PP) after the party’s refusal to be summoned over a press release it issued pulling out of last week’s by-elections.
Last month PP pulled out of the by-elections on argument that it has lost faith in Mec’s ability to conduct credible elections, and only informed the electoral body of its decision through a press release.
The Commission reacted by summoning the party’s officials vice-president (Administration) Brown James Mpinganjira, Publicity Secretary Ken Msonda and Irene Chikuni (3rd Deputy Secretary General) for a meeting through a letter dated 2nd October, 2014 signed by Chief Elections Officer, Willie Kalonga.
However, the PP has been refusing to attend the meeting which was first set for October 6th “due to other prior arrangements”, prompting the Commission to threaten to deal with the party formed by former President, Joyce Banda.
In a latest letter Mec issued out on 11th October, the electoral body threatened to take unspecified action against the party if it fails to attend a meeting scheduled for Monday October 13th, 2014.
“Be informed that the Commission is summoning all the mentioned persons in the letter to attend this meeting and is not taking any excuse for failing to show up. The Commission expects you to comply with this order to attend the meeting at 10.00AM on Monday, 13th October, 2014.
“It is in the interest of the Commission to resolve matters with Electoral stakeholders at a round table but if pushed to the extreme, we will resort to other means,” reads in part the letter signed by
Kalonga.
But PP through its Publicity Secretary, Ken Msonda has hit back, arguing the electoral body has no legal basis to threaten the party for ignoring the meeting, and that its officials were acting like
“people who have not been to school.”
Msonda responded: “Kindly be informed that none of the said PP NEC member(s) is attending your so called meeting. The Commission has no legal, ethical or traditional basis to force or threaten anyone to attend any meeting(s) organized or arranged by it unless you have a hidden agenda. I am at my best when threatened.”
The outspoken Msonda questioned the motives behind the meeting and further argued that Mec officials were throwing their integrity to the dogs.
“MEC insistence on the said meeting raises eyebrows. If the Commission feels injured by our press statement let it seek legal redress, we shall meet in Court where we shall present our evidence that the Commission contributed to recent past 20th May Tripartite General Elections. We have other important engagements to attend to rather than wasting our time attending a meeting whose agenda has no basis,” argued Msonda.
Six of PP’s members including the Secretary General Paul Maulidi participated in the recent by-elections dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). PP managed to get one councillor out of two parliamentary and five councillorship seats.
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A numbala 12 nanu ndiye mbuzi yeniyeni mano kunsi momwe wayankhila ken msonda mukumuona ngati akunjenjemera ameneyo?
Mwinatu chizungu simuva bwino? Werenganinso momwe wayankhila ken msonda muziwanso kuti akunjenjemera ndi ndani!
Ken Msonda anganjenjemere ndi mbendera, mbendera ndi ndaninso!
Ken ndi amuna mphanga, analimbana ndi malemu bingu pamozi ndi mathews chikaonda nkhani ya MTL kwa zaka ziwiri, ndiye ka mbendera ndi chianinso!
Mwaiwala ken anafuna kumangisa mec yonse nkhani ya zisankho yomweyo mwayi anamulesa JB?
njenjenjenje kunjenjemela, kungowauza kuti bwerani muzafotokoze bwino statement yanu mukuti bwanji zobera chisankho, nthawi yomweyo kuyamba kunjenjemela. muzisamala zolankhula
hahahahahahah koma maxon mbendera ndiwe omvetsa chisoni
Shame 2 pp.with all the resources,cashgate,jetgate,maizegate,mudzigate,kabazagate,mafumugate yet they lost.Can they attend such important meetings?Akagwere uko.
Frustrated politicians at there best. Coming with this and that. (1) nullifying elections because of unofficial vote results. (2)trying 2 form untimely alliance with MCP fooling them they (MCP) were cheated in elections but they also contested and MCP wont win elections in Malawi. (3)51+% vote result, yet could have been introduced b4 20 May. (4) igniting federalism and secession controvency to (i) bail out cashgate interest from Malawians (ii) to atleast rule North as they tried to dominate that part during elections. (5) crushing with electral body by shunning elections and electral stakeholder meetings. The silent end of the… Read more »
we also loose hope in dere party due to huge money that stolen msonda asamapange matama opusa anali m boma momwemo why they fail to reform those erragularity laws aluza ndipo aziwa kuti zina zufuna kunkozedwa uchindele tikulya yaye so u think mukasiya kutenga mbali ife tinyenyeka ndi ka chipani ka mchikwamako .muziwa kampeni kuti mtenge boma zomwezi za u caretaker muyambe nazo matama mnali ayani inu chikapanda bingu kukutolani kukhal vp president asaa!!! ken usatibowepo apa
A MEC mwatani pp knows dey cant win. by the way u ve lost trust malawians agree u arent totaly 2 blame but ur recent actions and speech are now making us doubt ur integrity, eg implicating a competent commander and how can warehouse burn under ur watch
Everybody knows how incompetent Mbendera is. There shall be civil war in Malawi if Mbendera is not removed. Remember that both Mbendera and Kalonga are DPP guys. Wait for the appointment of the new Chief Justice for you to know what happened in may. Mbendera is an opportunist and Kalonga is a certified thief.
A MEC APM akupusitsani tu ndinu zitsiru zoipa
Which councillor and in which ward was won by PP during the just gone by-elections?
DPP won 2 councillors in Mzimba and Karonga, while MCP won 1 and 2 were inependents. Nothing for PP! They shall never and can’t win.