MEC Commissioner Moffat Banda says won’t resign, accepts responsibility in Tippex elections
Beleaguered Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) commissioner Moffat Banda has told Public Appointments Committee (PAC) of Parliament that he will not resign despite accepting a compromised electoral system which the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) found when it annulled the 2019 ppresidential elections.
Banda was appearing before PAC inquiry on Tuesday at Parliament Building in Lilongwe, broadcast live on radio, and admitted that the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections had been incompetently managed.
He told the inquiry assessing MEC’s competence that he takes responsibility of some mistakes made during May 21 2019 elections but he is not going to resign.
“I will not resign not because I am pompus but I have done my part. I think I have carried by services in a degree of satisfaction,” baid Banda who chairs the media committee of the electoral body.
“I am not answering in that way so as to provoke the situation,” he said after being made aware of the public opinion towards the electoral body.
Banda also confirmed what another commissioner bishop Mary Nkosi testified that commissioners were made to sign for presidential election results a day after chairperson Jane Ansah had already declared President Peter Mutharika of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as the winner.
Legislators asked Banda what time he signed the declaration of results in the presidential election. He said it was “in the morning of the day the president was going to be sworn-in.”
Pressed on why the results were announced before commissioners had signed, Banda claimed the commissioner had discussed before and MEC Chairperson said “it was late and did not want to labour us. So we agreed to sign in the morning after results were announced.”
His comments were contrary to what Nkosi said. Nkosi, a former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) deputy governor appointed commissioner on June 6 2016, indicated the signing of the results before President’s swearing-in ceremony was in a way of ambush.
Nkosi also told the inquiry that many key decisions were made by chairperson Ansah, chief elections officer Sam Alfandika and “some commissioners” – possibly Banda – without the knowledge of other commissioners.
Banda said he took part in “all decisions made at meetings that I attended”, adding “ I may not have attended all meetings but those that I attended, I took part in making decisions.”
On results that were recorded on ordinary papers and not those printed in Dubai, Commissioner Banda says he only saw results on original papers and didn’t see any results on ordinary papers
Banda said: “When we were getting results, the transmission and everything went on very well. When I saw tippexed papers and duplicates I raised the questions but what surprised me is that auditors had stamped and signed.”
On tippexed results sheets, Banda said the commission decided to use the tally sheets after comparative analysis with results at the stream tally center.
He also said the decision to use Tippex was made to avoid infringing rights of presidential candidates as the issue of the Tippex was realised when one of the presidential candidates was leading.
‘’I took part in all decisions that the commission took. I at some point questioned why tippex and duplicate sheets were used. I told fellow commissioners that we were being cheated. I asked that we should not continue receiving those results,” said Banda adding that all commissioners had no access to the results management system as they were going through the tally sheets manually.
Commissioner Banda also told the inquiry that 2014 elections , which president Joyce Banda claimed were fraudulent when she lost, were also tippexed.
The Constitutional Court ruling of February 3, 2020 ordered, among other things, that PAC should inquire into the competency of the current MEC commissioners to conduct the country’s fresh election following the nullification of the May 21, 2019 presidential polls.
MEC was so heavily criticised in the findings of the five-judge panel of the High Court of Malawi sitting as the Constitutional Court as well as tasked to improve its capacity and arrange more credible elections.
The ruling established that the voting process had been marred by serious irregularities. The electoral commission had also failed to address complaints before announcing results. Tally sheets lacked monitor signatures, and several accepted tally sheets had been corrected using Tipp-Ex.
The court annulled the election and called for fresh elections within 150 days. Equally important, it established that parliament should move to properly enact section 80(2) of the constitution, effectively changing the Malawian electoral system.
That means a president will need a 50+1 majority of votes. Simply winning more votes than your competitors will no longer be enough. Throughout Malawi’s last parliamentary term, the governing Democratic Progressive Party actively tried to frustrate any attempts at such fundamental electoral reform.
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PLEASE TAKE ALL THE MEC COMMISSIONERS TO PRISON AND THROW THE KEYS INTO LAKE MALAWI.
Kkkkkkk a Moffat Banda tsitsi lowotcha ndi mwala lo, pitani muzikapanga pabwalo pa MBC radio, thats what you are good at, damn it.
Komatu penapake guys, ofunika kuonapo bwinobwino maka popanga resign po. This should also apply to MPs, who also compromise their service
Yes we messed up, yes we are incompetent, yes we were negligent but we want to keep our jobs……..go figure!
Nkulu uyu is corrupt ali ndi phd ya phada ya ku malawi and ndi okuba heavy.he iss dpp and alibe manyazi adikire azaomberedwa za ziii.inu a feli bee ku UK tawauzeni madala anuwa azisiye bwinoo bwino inu ndi anzathu sitinafune kulemba pa fb.koma zimatiwa akupanga mdara ameneyu hes useless
They should pay back the money to Malawians.
This old man should respect himself do not threatening people in such way! This is for the Nation not his village. If he have to resign he must resign other people come and work on his position two.
The commissioners don’t want to resign because if they do they will lose their gratuity and other benefits including official car……..but at the rate they are going they will be fired/sacked🤣🤣🤣🤣
SOMEONE BIGGER THAN THE WHOLE COMMISSION IS BEHIND EACH COMMISSIONER
ambuyake akukodzera mu mphika uyu. akatelo kukacita the headds’arse
timucotsa tokha unless azikagona kumwamba
We are hanging these people by their balls. As for the women, by their breasts.
Just wait and see.
You have dyed your hair to look young, but your face tells it all.
Moffat banda testimony seems objective. I like this kind of testifying osati that lady who testified yesterday by trying to wash her hands in order people’s anger elsewhere. It is also clear the issue of tippex was blown out of proportion. Unfortunately not many people want to see or hear the truth about the nil effect tippex had on the vote count.
You are entitled to your opinion.
Nde court linagamula kale kut tippex amabisa mavotitu. Kapena ndinu judge waku supreme court
Yes
Mr. Moffat Banda looks like my uncle. All our children run away from him.
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk nafwaaa
Kkkkkk…ndiwe chikape wamva….Ndakufilani mani Nematodes.
Kakakakakakakakakakakakakaka the guy walks with an injection on his face 😄😄😄😄😄
Ai ndithu, chilipo chomwe akudalira. Komatu ili ndi dziko ili.
Banda threatened PAC that if they ask him any nonsense question they will sent to prison
This kind of arrogance can only happen in Malawi, that after people have lost trust in you and you still cling to your job. Taking as for fools or what? You need to hang your head in shame you people. I guess time has come now to remove you violently, what other evidence do we want?
Mec Commissioner Moffat Banda is right. Please listen to him very well. If you insists that the Commissioners should resign, this means that all the Judges of the High Court should also resign for failing to deliver same justice to Malawians. This is clear because the Judges have differed in their ruling of the Tripartite election. Many of the MPs who lost during this election lodged their complaints to the High Court but the Judges ruling is different many of the MPs who triumphed during the elections won their cases and few about 2 who lost the election have won their cases. Malawians are confused. We cannot keep such Judges who don’t know their work. It is funny to see the same Judges under one roof bringing different ruling. If some Judges were from Kenya or Zimbabwe, we would understand but not our own Judges
You are the only one remaining it seem who thinks foolishly, Malawians have moved on to look at thinks logically not this gabbage coming out of you.
I think iweyo wangokula Mapwala koma nzeru ulibe. Is it a lie that there is difference in the Judges ruling?? So what are you talking about Machende Ambuzi??
A mayi ako
And Gome, let that Check Point remain behind and checking cheap points. We are discussing a Tippex president here. Not those damned MPs.
Find better things to do, poor soul.
I’m trying really hard to understand your logic, mutu ikundipweteka!
Moti ukupanga comment nkhani za ma case ama MP pamene commissioner yo anaitanidwa following court judgement over presidential election case? Mwakanika kuzisiyanisa. Ku constitutional court kunapita nkhani yama MP? Wadera lanji MP wake nkhani yagamulidwa ku constitutional court?
Instead of asking forgiveness from the Malawians he is busy challenging that he won’t resign,that is being pompus and rude.We all know that even in 2014 APM did not win the elections but MEC manipulated the results in favour of Peter.My question is,why are you not going to resign since it has showed you were completely compromised?You people in MEC you deserve a big punishment.
even MP results sheets were tipexed,auze moffati Banda
Chizungu muzimva! The judges said the use of tippex was “WIDESPREAD not ALL VOTING MATERIALS”. Kutanthaunza kuti ma pepala a tippex anali ambiri moti anakhuza zotsatira za ma voti a president. By exclusion meaning kuti ena mwa ma MPs sanakhuzidwe.
MP yemwe anapeza UMBONI of IRREGULARITIES submitted his/her petition well before the 7 days required expiry period. The rest is phokoso now.
In my opinion, a lot has to be done at MEC. We shouldn’t deal only with these incompetent commissioners but rather other key positions at the electrorate
I personally would have known that Mr Banda by al standards was openly a DPP die hard by every standard so what he said here is in tandem with what he believes in. Thanks Mr Banda for exposing who you are especially to those who chose deliberately not to understand you by your very utterances which were loud and clear. Certainly we do not need such characters as you in our MEC. Kindly bow down and go please
zikungoonetsa kuti sukudziwa momwe ma commisiioner a MEC amasankhidwila.
Ndikuuzeko kape iwe.zipani zazikulu zomwe zikupikisana zimapeleka maina a anthu ambali yao kuti akhale ma commisiioner mwachitsazo
moffat banda ndi mayi mathanga =Amaimila DPP
agogo Mtafu ndi yahaya m’madi= UDF
agogo Mkosi (Owopa kuluza prado aja)nd azawo =MCP
kunaliso ena a PP
Ndikudabwa kuti anthuwa sakumangidwa bwanji.Mantha alibe,just know Ansah ndiye mwini kanema.
That is being pompous, I think some of them deserve arrest
Uyu ndiwamwano I can’t resign My foot…
kikikikikikiki, this Moffat Banda, waponda mwala. His face tells it all…..He will not resign but he will be fired by the popular reaction to his pomp….abanona…
Koma zoti ma commssioner amasankhidwa ndiposo kuimila zipani mumadziwa?
ena amaimila DPP,MCP.UDF,PP
ndye zkutengera kuti munthuyu amaimila chipani chiti,u cant expect MCP commisiioner kukamba zogwilizana ndi MEC panopa ndi momwe MEC inayalukila ku court.
eg mary nkosi amaimila MCP ,ndye akamba bwanji kuti chilichose chinayenda bwino pomwe abwana ake ku MCP akudziwa kuti zinthu sizinayende bwino ndipo anawina mlandu ku court