Of buying youths beer, electoral coup and vote rigging in Malawi

When the Vice-President spoke about the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) alleged plans to rig next year’s elections, many of his critics, especially from the blue camp, dismissed the claim as one of his many stunts to woo support to his newly-launched United Transformation Movement (UTM).

MEC chairpersin Jane Ansah: Take concerns seriously, a stich in time saves nine

But we, on the streets, believe that the veep should not be dismissed outright, after all, who can trust the DPP-led government anyway? These people can steal anything, including our wives!

I digress. But my point is; allegations of misconduct during elections should put us all on our guard. That’s why, we on the streets, ask the government machinery and the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to take these concerns seriously and investigate because electoral coups and rigging come in many forms.

This week, my Kenyan friend Fidel, helped me to do a simple Internet research to find out how rigging can be carried out.  In Kenya, conspirators identified strategic locus or loci of State power, for example, the security apparatus, State broadcaster and parastatals which they infiltrated and controlled during and post-campaign periods.

Those in the know say that people who steal elections use these centres of power to acquire the remaining levers of State machinery, and eventually the State.

Whether they succeed or not election riggers are able to create and sustain a perception of victory once they have seized a strategic locus of State power.

Another tool electoral coup plotters use is to deploy threat or use of violence against those who may resist them. They carefully identify their friends as well as their enemies and opponents whose capacity for resistance must be sabotaged or neutralised sequentially or simultaneously. If buying the youth beer so that they do not attend opposition political rallies is one of such tools, then what is it? If camping outside UTM’s interim secretary general Patricia Kaliati’s house at Nkando is not part of intimidation, then what is it?

Ladies and gentlemen, electoral coups can also be messy and in some people adopt military warfare techniques, such as the use of psychological operation tactics (spying). The Vice-President raised this important point two weeks ago, which I think all Malawians must consider seriously.

In the United States, Donald Trump’s campaign team is alleged to have engaged Cambridge Analytica to harvest 50 million Facebook profiles to be used to build a powerful software programme to predict and influence choices at the ballot box.

What can stop riggers from doing the same with the local telecommunications data? That’s why; we on the streets say that the Veep’s allegations should not be dismissed as political banter.

Electoral coup conspirators also use civic spaces of democracy, such as the “mainstream” and social media to create and sustain a perception of the incumbent’s inevitable victory or invincibility and to intimidate the opposition. Malawians must be on the lookout for fake news, fake appointments and indeed fake decorations of political leaders. These tools are used to make people believe that a leader is important on the global stage when they are not.

When all is said, all the Vice President wanted to say is that Malawians must start sleeping with one eye open because, in this country, we have thieves who can steal an election.

Was he asking too much? -Source: NPL

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
3 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Hlabezulu Ngonoonda
Hlabezulu Ngonoonda
5 years ago

What the author on this forum has said is true. The views mirror with what Nie Cheeseman and Brian Klaas has written in their instructive book entitled “How to Rig an Election” they have just published. The two authors reveals that sham elections are depressingly common such that when more elections are held, more are also being rigged. The book details strategies used in rigging. The two explains that counterfeit democrats find ways on how to rig elections and also dupe Western observers and governments into accepting the outcome. Missing of ballot papers, ink, tarry sheets, gerrymandering, voter suppression, violence,… Read more »

Jim
Jim
5 years ago

Mr Phiri states that spying can be used to rig elections. Why should we regard spying as a threat to the electoral process? Presumably, it is just a method of making known what political parties would prefer to keep unknown, and as such, it is a useful weapon in the armory of those who wish to extend transparency, and ultimately, accountability.

Billy Chilewani
Billy Chilewani
5 years ago

He who knows that has not sinned must throw the first stone.

Read previous post:
4  Asians risk lengthy jail in forex externalisation case involving K5bn

Four Mzuzu based businesspersons of Asian origin are facing the prospects of life imprisonment sentences, MK500m fines and the revocation...

Close