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Citizens petition MEC, demand manifestos

There are growing calls for aspirants in the May21 2019 Tripartite Elections, especially presidential candidates and political parties, to make public their promises for the electorate to assess and make informed choices.

In the latest case, one Michael Chiphwanya is petitioning Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to publish manifestos of presidential aspirants on its website.

Chiphwanya: Publish manifestos on website

His petition, which is emphasising on giving Malawians enough time to appreciate promises from the presidential candidates, has attracted 211 on-line signatures. It is being hosted on www.change.org.

Chiphwanya argues that Malawians have previously been given a raw deal by the failure of stakeholders to make public documents containing campaign promises of candidates and political parties.

Reads the petition in part: “The electoral process is instituted for the people to exercise their rights to democracy. However, for people to make informed decisions access to information is important and manifestos are often used as one of the vital mediums of communication.

“Manifestos express the candidates’ desires and ambition for the nation. However, it has been a common trend for politicians to leverage limited understanding to drive their agenda.”

The petition also asks MEC to regularly post on its website updates on status of candidates including their brief profiles.

Chiphwanya’s petition has come three days after MEC on February 4 closed the process of receiving nomination papers from presidential, parliamentary and local government elections hopefuls.

Reacting to the petition, MEC director of media and public relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa said the commission would only formally respond to the issues raised in the petition once it is presented to MEC.

He said: “We are not aware of this petition. The commission can give direction on the matter when approached. In the past, we have distributed manifestos and campaign literature to prisoners only.

“The challenge though has been that some of the contestants in the past had no manifestos.

“It should be put on record that having a written down manifesto is not an eligibility criteria for a person or political party to contest elections. The parties and candidates are free to choose their own style of campaign.”

In a separate interview, Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) executive director Kizito Tenthani said the new Political Parties Act does not specify when political parties or candidates should publicise their manifestos.

But Chancellor College-based political analyst Mustafa Hussein said the delay in the publication of the manifestos was depriving people to make informed decisions.

With the official campaign period providing 60 days to polling day, no political party has to date unveiled its manifesto.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera and People’s Party (PP) torchbearer Joyce Banda a week ago hinted at some issues they would like to work on assuming they were voted into the highest office.

The two leaders separately discussed the fight against corruption, job creation, sustainable energy, quality education and financial prudence as some areas critical to their campaign.

MCP publicity secretary Reverend Maurice Munthali said the manifesto has delayed because it was being refined and revised.

President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in his campaign rallies has emphasised on infrastructure development while UTM Party leader Saulos Chilima has been quoted to have said he would create one million jobs in the first year as well as cooperatives to boost agricultural production.

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