PAC says Malawi electoral reforms on agenda after poll case ruling

Quasi religious body, the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) says it will bring back on the table for debate and discussion the issue of  Electoral Reforms Bill, which was shot in Parliament last year.

PAC spokesperson Gilford Matonga said the electoral reforms are a remedy to some of the contentious issues the country is facing now.

“The judgment alone will not solve the political problems the country is facing. We need the electoral reforms,” said Matonga.

The Electoral Reforms Bill, which among other things seeks to change the electoral system from First-Past-the-Post to the 50+1 system for electing a president, was shot down in Parliament last year mainly by governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) parliamentarians.

Among others, the reforms want to puts on hold the swearing in of the president elect until courts have done away with all the legal challenges.

Matonga said there was need for the country to adopt the electoral reforms championed by the Malawi Law Commission.

British High Commissioner Holly Tett is on record to have advised  political leaders to embrace the reforms as one way of ending electoral disputes that have rocked the country since 1994.

Tett said apart from dialoguing on the current political impasse, leaders should embrace electoral reforms that will be instrumental in the management of the 2024 polls.

“The elections system has really forced Malawi into a crisis. Malawi is a young democracy and what is important is that institutions should agree on what needs to change in order to move forward,” said Tett in quotes reporte by The Nation daily newspaper.

She said it is difficult to debate on what electoral system is best for Malawians, but said the stakeholders should discuss “on the electoral system to be followed beyond 2024.”

The First-Past-the-Post system has been faulted for putting in power a president who does not have the mandate of the majority of the voters as a candidate gets elected only with a small proportion of popular vote.