‘MEC image damaged’
Malawi Electoral Commission spokesperson SANGWANI MWAFULIRWA speaks to our reporter WATIPASO MZUNGU on funding challenges, fraud allegations, the constituencies’ demarcation exercise and biometric registration among subjects.
MEC recently stated it had financial problems that led to the closure of its offices by creditors. Has there been any improvement in funding and has the commission paid its creditors?
The financial challenges facing MEC are not unique to it. they are common to all institutions and agencies that draw support from the public purse. The closure of the offices was due to arrears from the 2014 elections which will be funded separately by the Treasury. All MEC had to do was to manage the situation within its little funding for other recurrent transactions. Although we have reopened the offices after agreeing to pay the outstanding debts in instalments, the funding levels have not improved.
With so many financial scandals dogging the commission, do you think MEC has done enough to win the goodwill and confidence of appropriate authorities, such as Parliament and the Treasury, to manage its own financial resources?
There are many allegations that have been thrown into the public sphere basing on inconclusive audits. This has greatly damaged the image of the commission as a public body that can be trusted to manage its purse prudently. But all stakeholders and the general public should be informed that MEC is committed to reforms in its financial management systems that will ensure prudence. On corporate governance, the commission established a fully-fledged internal audit department and also an internal audit committee. The commission has also guided that apart from the periodic audits by the National Audit Office, its account books will also be audited by private auditors. These steps are being taken to demonstrate that its commitment to ensure that any government penny is used for its intended purpose. MEC would love to have a protected funding because that would ensure timely implementation of activities unlike being at the mercy of the Treasury. MEC had to postpone by-elections this year because funding could not be released in time by the Treasury. Had it been that the MEC funding was protected this could not have happened because we could have accessed the money that was allocated by Parliament.
What will be the guiding factors should MEC decide to demarcate constituencies?
The commission has of late been getting enquiries from all the corners of the country especially from sitting elected leaders on the plans MEC has for their areas, more especially if it will split their constituencies or not. What everyone should know is that demarcation is a very consultative process. Normally, activities are coordinated at council level and relevant stakeholders like council officials, political parties, traditional leaders and civil society organisations including the public directly are engaged. We are aware and we cannot pretend not to know that there is a general feeling among members of the public that some of the constituencies should be split because they are too big with difficult-to-reach patches to be serviced by one representative. This, it is argued, would help the MP to pay proper attention to the needs of the constituents. Following this line of argument, there should be an increase in the total number of MPs from the current 193. However, there is also another school of thought that says that with councillors in place, the number of MPs we have now is more than enough and even some constituencies should be merged. If MPs concentrate on their legislative roles then they cannot complain that the constituency is too big. We will have to tread carefully by having a clear formula and guidelines that will help us to have a successful exercise with a sustainable output and also considering the national resource envelop.
Will MEC take into account the prevailing financial challenges government is facing before or during the demarcation exercise?
The last time boundary delimitation was undertaken was 1998, about 17 years ago. As you would note, this has gone beyond the five-year interval as required by the Constitution. In the run up to the 2014 elections the commission only finalised delimitation of ward boundaries, the process of which had started in 2010. It is apparent, therefore, that the current sizes and number of constituencies and wards do not therefore reflect the basic democratic principles as laid down in the Constitution. The law gives powers to the MEC to determine the number of constituencies for purposes of elections and to undertake or supervise the demarcation of wards. In the case of constituencies, the overriding criterion is that of ensuring equitable representation and MEC is encouraged to ensure that “constituencies contain approximately equal number of voters eligible to register”. Other considerations include population density, ease of communication, geographical features and existing administrative areas. For the wards, factors to be considered include population density, geographical features, easy communication and the wishes of the people and the MEC is to ensure that ward boundaries do not cross local authority jurisdictions. While financial realities are not part of the criteria for demarcation process, definitely it will be in the interest of all stakeholders to have a number of constituencies and wards that can be sustained by the economy.
QHas MEC undertaken any steps to ensure that biometric registration of voters is possible in the 2019 elections?
The commission wanted to implement a biometric voter registration in the run up to the May 20, 2014 elections. However, the plans were shelved on technical advice from stakeholders. The commission is still pushing for this idea. After the 2014 elections, UNDP hired a consultant, Africore, to conduct a feasibility study on implementation of the biometric voter registration system. The consultant recommended that the MEC should work in collaboration with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) in coming up with a reliable national population register from which the MEC would then extract its voters’ register. So far a joint task force has been set up to work on modalities. MEC and NRB will be informing all stakeholders in due course. MEC is interested to have this exercise implemented on time because it has a bearing on the implementation of the other activities ahead. n
