MEC says no official broadcaster for Malawi poll announcement

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says there will be no official broadcaster for the announcement of the highly contentious May 21 polls as has been the case in the past elections.

MEC chairperson Jane Ansah said the media in Malawi has improved tremendously that the pollster does not need to control one broadcaster for the announcement of the poll results.

“The Commission has considered that the broadcast industry has undergone some transformation
in the past years and the reasons that warranted the issue of official broadcaster no longer exist” said Ansah during a National Elections Consultative Forum (NECOF) held at Crossroads Hotel in the Capital Lilongwe.

She said the commission has the capacity to announce the results on their own.

In the past, MEC engaged the state controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as the official broadcaster of poll results until people complained that it was biased towards the ruling party.

In 2014, MEC engaged privately owned Zodiak as the official broadcaster and did a good work but MEC might have come under intense pressure from the government to abandon Zodiak.

Ansah, however, advised stakeholders that during polling and results management this year, they should only regard as official announcement of results on various media channels presented by a MEC Commissioner or official.

The commission has further resolved that only candidates and political parties contesting the election will have their representatives accredited as  monitors in various polling centres across the country.

“The rest will fall under the observer category. To facilitate this process, the Commission is appealing to all parties and candidates to submit names of the polling centre monitors to the MEC offices stationed at  the DC offices throughout the country” Justice Ansah said.

Ansah has also said MEC is in the process of identifying a printer for ballot papers.