Political scientist raps Malawi govt over MEC commissioners appointment

A renowned political scientist at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi has described the ruling party biased appointment of commissioners at Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) as recipe for problems during the 2019 elections.

Joseph Chunga, chairman of Political Scientists Association said Malawians will not trust the new commission dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) diehards.

“The President could have considered names from other political parties. The appointment has already raised eyebrows as some people think the DPP is dominating the commission in order to rig the 2019 elections,” said Chunga.

President Peter Mutharika appointed MEC commissioners on Monday and these are Jean Mathanga a ruling DPP membe, a former Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) board chair Moffat Banda, former Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) deputy governor Mary Nkosi,former Livingstonia Synod moderator and current Ekwendeni Mission Hospital principal administrator the Reverend Clifford Baloyi and the Reverend Killion Mgawi, who has served Nkhoma Synod as a minister for 53 years besides being its first general secretary.

Others are former diplomat Yahaya M’madi of United Democratic Front (UDF) and Linda Kunje of Peoples Party.

Out of the nine previous commissioners only Elvey Mtafu has been retained while the rest are new faces.

Steve Duwa, executive director of Malawi Electoral Support Network welcomed the appointment of the commissioners and told them to put aside their political differences and work as a commission.

Duwa said the commissioners do not have honey moon as they have big task of preparing for the 2019 elections in addition to the holding of the by elections in Mchinji West.

Chairperson of Gender Coordination Network Emma Kaliya applauded the president for appointing equal numbers of women and men in the commission.

She said this shows that Malawi is getting towards the 50-50 gender equality.