MP Lipipa urges Malawians to prioritise life over votes: ‘Postpones fresh elections amid Covid-19’

April 2, 2020 Nyasa Times Reporter 24 Comments

Member of Parliament for Blantyre City South Constituency Noel Lipipahas questioned the idea of prioritising the fresh elections over the well-being of Malawians amid coronavirus  (Covid-19) concerns.

Lipipa: Elections should face the casualty until Covid-19 concerns are gone

Speaking in an interview,  Lipipa, who is a member of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said that there is a need for Malawi to avoid being a nation that doesn’t put the well-being of its people first but democracy in this time of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“We have allocated a whopping MK34 billion for fresh elections and only MK15 billion for Coronavirus and we are saying let’s go and vote exposing the 17 Million Malawians to the risk of contracting the virus because the courts ordered us to vote within 150 days. Have we lost our minds?” questioned Lipipa.

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) announced that fresh elections for presidential will be held on July 2, 2020.

Lipipa said that conducting an election means that people will be campaigning and on the date of voting people will queue to cast their votes which will potentially put people’s lives at risk of contracting the virus.

“Malawi’s economy is already hard pressed and would have to spread itself out even thinner if elections were to occur during the pandemic. Let’s not make Malawi a laughing stock and a shame in the face of the world. We can do politics after we conquer this common enemy the coronavirus,” he added.

Ethiopia has postponed parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for August due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Despite registering any cases of the pandemic, President Peter Mutharika declared the country as State of Disaster and directed that all schools, colleges (including technical colleges), both public and private universities should be closed and restrictedpublic gatherings to less than 100 people as prevention measures

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24 replies on “MP Lipipa urges Malawians to prioritise life over votes: ‘Postpones fresh elections amid Covid-19’”

  2. A noel Lipipa nda ndaniso pa malawi pano ka business kanaduka kalekale…akuwona ngati awapasa unduna kupusa…

  3. I agree with the assertion made by honourable, especially with the situation at hand, however intrigued as you were the same person who has been financing violent cadets to outdeal protesting citizens during demonstrations. Your land rover was carrying cadres to threaten innocent people’s lives. How come this time around ur showing concern over their health, we have our doubts that this is the rationale for postponing the elections.

  4. Ofcource any beneficiary of ill-gotten taxpayers money would do anything to delay the coming election as this would give them a chance to loot as much as possible especially when they know exit in the next three or four months is inevitable..

  5. Which well being are talking about? Where is covid 19 in Malawi and how many have died? Even if it did arrive in Malawi (which I believe is already the case and pple are just living through it as its mostly un noticed), pple can still vote while observing social distancing. Palibe kuthawa zisankho mbava inu. NTCHONA must go.

  7. Utsogoleri pelekani kaye ku MDF ndiye muziti postpone the election.

    usatitayitse nthawi sizampira izi.

  8. It seems, some people are concerned more of politics than the wellbeing and health of Malawians. Think of other developed countries are running out of options about the convid 19 and they have all what it takes for the treatment (equipments ) and mostly oxygen therapy is more what is needed, if the pandemic had to spread, how many Malawians will undergo that therapy, do we have enough oxygen in hospitals, definitely it’s a no. So fellow Malawians this is the time to show that we are civilised,we implement the government advise and take safe precautions, it says prevention is better than cure. In my opinion it’s better to cancel elections, whether the court ruled for a rerun, Malawians don’t take a risk with this political issues. Let’s put corona virus first and politics last, wellbeing and health of our families matters most.

  9. We are praying that the pandemic should end soon as called by our president. Why should we loose faith and postpone elections? Then we will also postpone opening of schools, colleges to next year. Its too early to talk of postponement as the world is tirelessly working to have the pandemic come to an end very soon.

  10. Postponement of the election should only happen on condition that we put in place an interim government, not this government whose mandate expired in May last year. We wouldn’t have a president who does not have the blessing of the masses to continue making executive decisions that affect us all.

  12. If Noel Lipipahas wants the election postponed then let him pay for lawyers to have the Supreme Court consider a petition from him, and overturn the 150 day thing from the ConCourt.

    Some countries are not deferring elections or referendums. South Korea is going ahead soon with elections. A certain African nation has held, or will hold, a referendum.

  14. No issue of buying time here . Lipipa akunena zoona. Ethiopia has postponed elections scheduled for August and Uganda has postponed elections for 2020 to 2023. Why not MALAWI? MEC should postpone the elections to next year . Where will they get ballot papers? How will International observes come to Malawi when many countries has suspended flights ????? Look at things with sober minds

    1. MEC cannot postpone the election ordered by the Con Court. It will have to petition the Supreme Court to order the postponement.

    2. eh fusani jeni asa anthu aenda bwanji, jefule akawatenga mu licelo.

      ife tingofuna tikhale ndi komishoni ina please please please

    3. Ndiwe galu kwabasi. Maiko ukunenawo ali affected. Why should we postpone it? Is it because DPP knows kuti akupakira and you guys want to cling to power by all possible means?

  16. Stop politicizing the covid 19 to try to buy time from an election which you know your president will lose.

    If people can still go into shoprite, can still ride minibuses, are still going to work, what makes you think that they cant vote at a poll centre where there is social distancing, hand sanitizers and masks in place?

    1. Well said!

      Re social distancing: the police and army can set up areas around polling centres so that groups of 100 or less can congregate while waiting for their chance to enter to cast their ballot.

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