Malawi fresh elections cannot be presided by current bunch of rude and arrogant commissioners
For Malawians who wondered why Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) commissioners are sticking to their positions despite the Constitutional Court in Lilongwe last week nullifying the May 21 2019 presidential results on the basis of what it described as widespread, systematic and grave irregularities, the answers came this week in loads and buckets.
In total compliance with the ruling of the court to take a look at the commissioners with a view to trigger a process of their removal, the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament this week has been meeting the men and women who managed the disastrous May 21 elections.
Courtesy of live radio broadcasts, we were able to follow the interaction and yes, it confirmed our fears.
The five judges who annulled the elections in Lilongwe were spot on.
The May 21 election should not be allowed to stand because the legal processes that are in the electoral laws and Constitution were grossly flouted.
But it is more than what the court said that went wrong.
As we have seen this week, the people that were entrusted to run the election are not fit at all and most of them have no clue about the responsibility that was put on their shoulders and how they were supposed to go about it.
What came out very clearly is that despite the mess they caused to the May 21 election, something that the court found, some commissioners are still adamant and rude and are clinging to their imaginary belief that all went well.
While some such as Linda Kunje were outright rude as she went about defending the indefensible, others such as Mary Nkosi were very straightforward in saying that with the fiasco that was the May 21 elections, they are ready to go but are waiting for their benefits, that include vehicles (yes top-of-the-range Toyota Prado VX courtesy of poor taxpayers) which are only payable at the end of their four-year term in four months’ time.
Despite the mess some such as Moffat Banda are too loyal to those that appointed them that we could see and hear the struggle in their voices not to put their foot wrong to displease their political masters while others such as Jean Mathanga were too smooth spoken with doubts written all over their faces about the truth behind what they were saying.
After all, why should Malawians trust what was coming from the mouth of the commissioners when the court has already spoken that this group is an incompetent one, replete with evidence?
But these commissioners can shout their voices until they crack; it will not change that they presided over a process marred with irregularities, forcing the court to declare it a nullity.
They can wait for their benefits or lie the whole day that they tried their best until cows come home, but no one should believe them.
Malawi must hold elections in five months time but the new polls cannot be presided over again by a bunch of rude and arrogant commissioners.
Malawians deserve a clean poll this time and the excitement has already started with the political wheeling and dealing already underway.
With the court ordering a fresh election within 150 days, Malawians are already discussing possible permutations and alliances.
Everyone was pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised, depending on which side they support when Malawi News shocked the nation on Saturday after reporting that UTM is ready to talk to anyone, including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
It started with warming up of relations between the supporters of the two parties on social media.
There is a maxim that says there are no permanent enemies in politics but I guess the shock was just too much for those who thought UTM can never have a dalliance with the same people they rudely called Apumbwa not long time ago.
Many questions come to mind. What has changed for this wheeling and dealing? Can such an alliance between UTM and DPP work and in whose interest would it be if it were to happen, if at all it can happen? Who is to lose more or gain between UTM and DPP, if such an alliance was to happen?
What is baffling is that the alliance, that some Malawians thought was obvious and want to see between Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM, to build on their unity displayed at court as petitioners in the constitutional case, seems not obvious after all and all wrong signs are there for all to see.
It is clear that there are all sorts of sticking points central of which, I suppose, is the issue of who would be a candidate and who would be a running mate between MCP president Lazarus Chakwera and UTM leader Saulos Chilima.
Eventually with all these problems and permutations, the question that only time will answer is: Shall we have alliances at all or what we will see is that all these parties will go into the presidential election on their own.
With the 50 plus 1 percent as a definition of majority as ruled by the Constitutional Court in Lilongwe, is Malawi poised to see a run-off if the ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court.
It is all exciting time ahead and this should not be dampened by a bunch of an incompetent committee of Mec commissioners who are merely waiting to walk away with shiny Prados courtesy of taxpayers’ money.
They are all beyond their sale-by-date. We need a new commission in place.
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Well said . I enjoyed reading this article
Commissioner Kunje should know that every Malawian was watching when she slammed the door behind her on our ELECTED honourable MPs! That rudeness deserves punishment! Parliament is a co equal branch of government and am sure she cannot do that of the President was questioning her! She acted so immature and emotional that as Malawians we were so worried that this kind of personalities mismanaged our elections! There is away one can communicate to others a divergent view and rudeness only serves the ignorant!
Namathanga, is some lady thou
Yes Moffat said he can defeat even MDF Soldiers him being an ex MYP
I wonder why the Commission has not Lawyers except the tired and compromised Jane Ansah, no qualified accountants and not even Political or Computer Scientists.It is full of people who can be manipulated.
For me, Linda Kunja did a great job. If answering as she did is being rude, then I wish I could be rude too. I was watching that woman with great admiration. Mrs Nkosi is a fake
Your brain is not working.Fools like you will always worship their masters even if the master says we shall kill you
uku ndi kuyankhula kwa mmodzi mwa amene anapindula nawo ndi umbanda umenewu, mavuto tili nawo koma atha pompano bwana namatetule, sooner than what u expected.
I did not notice the author of the article is George Kasakula calls commisioners a bunch, George is probably the most useless editor times has ever had. since times is not the news paper one can trust, they have midiocrity because they need cheap labour. By the way George even if you change the commisioners, illegularities will still be there because you have 12,000 people working on elections. People go to the same class and taought by the same teacher yet when examed they give different answers.
Whether the irregularities will be there we don’t care but all we want is new faces in the MEC camp
Linda and Mathanga put up a good show to these uneducated bastards who wanted to show off. I was not pleased with the chair because he wanted to threaten the ladies but they were not cowed. The questions were just silly only one person asked a relevant question. Why would the committee waste time asking the commisision about what was proved in court. Was this a retrial. I had expected they will point out on the annomalies in the last elections and ask them how they would handle elections in future.
Prosecutors often ask questions that deliberately will rattle the accused to provoke emotional reactions. When the accused gets angry they know the case is over- the defense team has lost it. Usually it’s an admission of guilt, a defensive mechanism.
Ndiye achina Kunje by slamming doors, displaying utterly rudeness were being assertive????……. They were just doing themselves injustice and of course that of their masters
The headline and what you started writing is about the fate of MEC Commissioners.
Why include the alliance issue.
The alliance discussion is a separate topic for another day. Free lessons on journalism.
it is very clear that Jane Ansah and the commissioners did not take their responsibility seriously. Their testimony before PAC demonstrated some loose cannons, misdirected, reckless, arrogant, incompetent, good for nothing individuals whose performance was way below their pay grade. The revel of recklessness and incompetence is beyond comprehension. They should NEVER be allowed to hold any public office, they are a disgrace.
Commissioners aren’t the problem. The problem is losers failing to concede defeat. In 1994 kamuzu accepted defeat, although it was possible we had lots of irregularities. since 1999 mcp find it hard to accept they lost and always rush to court.
If mcp loses the rerun, will they accept? I doubt
The 2019 had WIDESPREAD irregularities. Elections can have some irregularities yes, but when it’s widespread and consistent, it cannot be just a coincidence.
Achimwene olo kuti mupite ku ma school aku mudzi tipp-Ex simungamupeze, ngati amasowa ma rim ama A4 papers
The problem is Chilima is power hungry. He does not have interests of Malawians at heart; this is very glaring. All his focus is for him to become the president. This is the kind of mentality that Malawi has of selfish people who want to be in power. If he really cared for Malawians in the first case, he would have formed an alliance with MCP in the first elections of 21 May 2019. This would have been very strategic to defeat the enemy No. of Malawi, DPP. However, he chose to stand alone knowing very well that he is from Central Region just as MCP is and that they would divide the votes from Central region thus making the project of defeating enemy No1. a futile exercise. Please stop to be selfish, Chilima, and now you want to be a political Bed-mate of DPP. This would make you a typical prostitute if you venture into it, you will have declared publicly you don’t mind who you sleep with, what matters is how much you gain from it – that is the line of a Prostitute’s think. I hope you won’t prove this. In Tumbuka they say ” Kauzyanga ni Fwiti yayi, Fwiti ni tilinganenge”. Learn from this, or else history will judge you harshly.
the same could be said of Chakwera.
Every Politician is a power hungry Politician no matter which side they are. when they campaign they goal is power period
It is very clear that Jane Ansah and the commissioners did not take their responsibility seriously. Their testimony before PAC demonstrated some loose cannons, misdirected, reckless, arrogant, incompetent, commissioners. it seems like all they were interested in is their gratuity and benefits more than running a credible election. The level of recklessness is unbelievable, they should NEVER hold any public office in their lives ever! they are a disgrace period!!!!!!
why don’t you just terminate their employment!
These commissioners are taking the Malawians passiveness for a ride, they have no single aorta to continue clinging to their positions, their heads should be hanging in shame if they have any single sense of responsibility left in them.
We all knew that the only reason Jane Ansah, aka Jezebel has been clinging to her untenable position is because she want to see her retirement days thru so that she can get all the pension she thinks she deserves despite all the misery her incompetence has caused in our country.
My message to Jane Ansah and all the other commissioners is this: yes you will get your pension and yes you will get your retirement benefits but Malawians are not fools and you will never enjoy the proceeds of your retirement benefits……
To start with your houses and the prado VX cars that you are waiting for will be burnt to ashes within 6 months of your retirement and there’s more bad news for you Jezebel especially, your life will be cut short for putting our country in so much pain while you are enjoying the proceeds of your wickedness….
Please Jane and all the other please take heed of these words because they are true….you have been warned.
Bwana that is going backwards….leave GOD to be GOD.
Jane must go and the people of Malawi will be at peace. We are a nation of peace and what you are doing here is INTIMIDATION and stupidity at the highest level. NO BLOOD SHED IN MALAWI.
Typical of mcp youth league. Killing is not a strange thing to you. We saw this during kamuzu. So that’s what you want to bring back if voted into power . Shame on you. God will not allow this.
Malawi over my dead body will be ruled by a ghost worker Chakwera who has pocketed millions of kwachas without going to work. The Speaker of Parliament should step down because she authorised the payment.
Ntambo please mobilise demos for Speaker of Parliament to step down. This is total corruption. Matemba where are you on this issue?
Lets match against corruption in parliament!
b4 you match try to march. lol chizungu
It would be recklessness of the highest order, a joke and a slap in the face of Malawians if the current crop of MEC were allowed to continue their work. I have never seen rudeness and arrogance displayed by servants of the people.
Eek!
lets wait until the appeal is decided!
The originator of this write-up rightly says there are no permanent enemies blah! blah!, but displays his crooked mind by outrightly concluding that that marriage might be for conveniences-sake because of ‘Apumbwa’ analogy. Now what do you want us the readers to grasp? Bottomline is he would have liked his party to partner UTM and not what is making the rounds currently.
You are the same proponents of the 50% + 1 idea, which of course works when parties in a country are not as many as Malawi has, the beneficiaries understand the concept, nothing like trial and error application due to ill-conceived ideas ….. the points are very numerous that I cannot exhaust all. The route semi-illiterate Malawians are celebration about and are about to adopt will come to haunt them not long from now. These western practices are forced down the throats of very unsuspecting people just like how the ‘Democracy’ mantra was introduced. These copy and paste means of resolving matters is what is killing the country.
On the point of who is to lead if the marriage of convenience saw its light of day; you compare the two leaders and weigh them-in, a sane and non-partisan follower should straight away go for Chilima whose common-sense and intelligence is by far way ahead of his fellow compatriot, though it is believed that much as common sense is what it is, it is not so common to other people. One will wonder, if by any misfortune, Chakwera becomes the head of state. Malawi will taken backwards a hundred fold. His methodology and modality of governing is typically the Nsundwe scenarios. So brace yourselves Malawians for a 5 year toiling and gnashing of your teeth. Njoka simasintha kukhala kalulu at a certain stage. Kamlepo ananena kale kuti fisi ndi fisi, olo atasintha thengere – ndi fisi basi.
Ok, let the appointment be in this way. New MEC chairperson,, Justice Dingiswayo Madise. Commissioners,, Justice Ivy kamanga representing MCP, Justice Healey Potani representing UTM Justice Mike Tembo representing PP ,, Mr khumbo kachali representing Rainball party. Then there will be no irregularities and Rev. Chakwera will just win even without counting votes.
Ma commissioners achoke…..we r really tired of them .ma benefits mupatsdwa pa taxpayers yathuyo though u have already depleted our hard earn money
MEC did a good job. But losers had their friends in COnCourt to overturn the result. But it is president Mutharika who will decide on MEC commissioners.
president has NO CHOICE BUT FOLLOW THE WIND if he the little legitimancy