Malawi flagship newspaper calls for clarity on espionage claims ahead of fresh elections
The opposition claims that government forced telecommunications companies to provide Virtual Private Networks (VPN) at State House with the intent to intercept data transmission going into Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) system for the fresh presidential elections “should not be treated lightly” is the verdict of the editorial comment in Malawi’s flagship daily newspaper on Monday.
The Daily Times says all stakeholders should come together and present their sides on the claims that government through Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has forced mobile network operators to engage and provide VPN at State House to intercept data transmission going into MEC as well as citizens phones affecting privacy – so that Malawians are clear about the matter.
“These are serious allegations that cannot be parried away with careless abandon,” the paper said.
The leader’s comment asked the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and State vice-president Saulos Chilima, who are making the claims, to approach necessary entities and lodge their complaints.
“Since they claim to have the evidence, let them produce it so that the matter is put to rest,” the paper said.
While the publication said it is not endorsing the MCP and UTM’s allegations, they believe they are providing an opportunity to clear anything suspicious so that the integrity of the forthcoming fresh presidential elections should not be compromised like those of May 2019 which were nullified by the Constitutional Court.
In its front-page story, MCP secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka is quoted saying: “We have credible intelligence information about State House agents calling Airtel and TNM top officials forcing them to supply VPN connection to State House so that they can access both voice and data for their own crooked ways.”
He further said the two mobile operators asked both State House and Macra to put their request in writing as it was against regulations to effect any VPN connectivity without proper procedures.
But presidential press secretary Mgeme Kalilani has described the allegations as baseless.
“This is news to me and I am not aware, I want to urge Malawians to exercise caution and learn to verify stories particularly with social media reports at this time when people are in fresh election mood,” Kalilani said as quoted by the paper.
He further said some people are politically charged and there is huge irresponsible use of social media.
Macra director general Godfrey Itaye challenged the opposition to bring their evidence.
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I honestly don’t know why announcement of election results at Constituency level was stopped. It during electronic transmission of results that information is rigged.
Daily Times is full of MCP from its leadership to guards. It’s full of Congress propaganda throughout. It has been dancing to the “Atibera” song of MCP since 1994. No wonder, it is struggling on the market.
VPN kkkk kkkk it is called a Virtual Private Network. Am able to set a VPN on my phone because I don’t want intrusion
Has anyone explained what a VPN is and how it is used? There are many organisations using VPNs in Malawi. Are these using their VPNs for espionage?
State House must definitely have a VPN to secure their communication from those that leak documents transmitted insecurely.
So let opposition stop pedaling lies
I stopped reading daily times longtime ago it’s all propaganda and puts wrong headlines it misleads people,I never trust that newspaper.
One of Malawi’s many current problems is that if whistleblowers come into the open, they will be sacked or receive a visit from the cadets. If there were an efficient system to protect them, some corruption might be dealt with. Until then, it’s perfectly understandable that whistleblowers don’t want their identities revealed.
Espionage. ID cards the list goes on and on. Our newspapers should learn to press the so called intelligence sources to reveal what they have as evidence rather to be seen as crying wolves.To some you will be seen as creating a scapegoat for losing if it turns out that way. We have seen evidence of wrong doings being published before and as said in your article the operators demanded the request in writing for future reference then publish the letter which was sent to them or else its Times campaigning for it’s party which was stolen from the north… Read more »
Its unfortunate that Chilima always makes such stupid allegations and now he has an accomplice who claims to know ICT Daud Suleman. Zimenezi ndizimene anthu osewera mpira amachita akaona kuti team yomwe akufuna kusera nayo iwagonjetsa amati ili ndi mankhwala.
Anazolowera amenewo musawasiye choncho !!!!!!!!!!
Fresh presidential election must be on a manual basis. The MEC result management system cannot be trusted. Malawians are hereby warned that the same output of the failed 21 May 2019 will follow if manual system of vote counting is not used.