MEC staff to sabotage poll registration exercise, demand allowance increase
Election voter registration staff hired by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) are warning of sabotage at the start of the exercise unless their allowance is increased.
The voter registration staff are given K120000 each for a fortnight which translates into K8500 a day.
But some staff, undergoing training in Blantyre, said they would take up their positions only if the allowance has been upped.
“The allowance is just too little compared to the current cost of living,” said one of the voter registration members.
MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa has dismissed the threats, saying the pollster could not be pushed with threats.
The registration of the voters for the 2019 polls starts this month in the central region amid reports that some voter registration staff have declined to take up their positions because of the low allowances.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
Kulankhula kopusa. The best way to say is: “we will engage the staff in discussion to find the way forward”, not “we cant be pushed by threats”. You should know people power.
Sikulankhula mopusa but stating facts. These people knew what the allowance was before they went on training. Now that they have been trained, they want to change the agreement conditions. These are mere MSCE level employees and there are many who would die for such a job at less than that amount.
Malawians should learn to stick to contractual agreements rather than take organizations to ransom. If they want to leave, they should pay back the cost of the training so that willing recruits can be trained to take their place.
There are people who can do with k8500 per day. And many of them indeed.
paja mukumangolembana pa chibaletu zisatikhudze ife