MEC nods to 9 presidential candidates
Malawi’s 6.8 million registered voters will have nine presidential candidates to choose from when they queue to vote in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections.
This follows Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) confirmation of presidential candidates, including incumbent President Peter Mutharika of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Vice-President Saulos Chilima of newly formed UTM Party.
In a statement dated February 14 2019 and signed by MEC chief elections officer Sam Alfandika, the electoral body said it has disqualified Loudon Titan Malingamoyo Phiri and his running mate Ethel Vivian Makoko who represented National Salvation Front (Nasaf) for failure to meet one of the minimum requirements.
Reads the statement: “The candidate met the minimum requirement of 10 electors in one district only out of the required 28 [districts]. The candidate was requested to satisfy this requirement by February 11 2019, but has not managed to this date. An extension was made, to this date he has not complied.”
At the close of the nomination process on February 8 2019, MEC had received 10 nomination papers from presidential candidates representing political parties as well as independent aspirants.
The development means the number of presidential candidates in the 2019 presidential race will be three short of the 12 that battled it out in the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections.
Besides political allies-turned-rivals, Mutharika and Chilima, other candidates in the presidential race are Lazarus Chakwera (Malawi Congress Party-MCP), John Chisi (Umodzi Party-UP), Peter Kuwani (Mbakuwaku Movement for Development-MMD), Joyce Banda (People’s Party-PP), Atupele Muluzi (United Democratic Front-UDF), Cassim Chilumpha (Tikonze People’s Movement) and Revelend Kaliya (independent).
MEC has listed the presidential candidates and their running mates in the order they presented their nomination papers to the electoral body from February 4 to 8 at Chichiri International Conference Centre in Blantyre, starting with Chakwera and Mutharika at the end of the list.
In terms of gender, the number of women presidential aspirants has dropped from two in 2014 to one. In 2014, Hellen Singh represented United Independent Party (UIP) while then incumbent president Joyce Banda was the torchbearer for PP. This time around, Banda is the sole female presidential candidate whereas Chilumpha’s ticket partner, Zione Matumba, is the only female running mate.
Reacting to the final list in a race where 24 collected presidential nomination papers, political analyst Nandin Patel said in an interview that although the number of candidates had reduced, the development would not in itself ensure an improvement in the quality of candidates.
She said: “To me, the figure nine is still up there and we should have hoped for a more reduced figure.
“When there was talk of alliances, we hoped that the numbers of presidential candidates would significantly be reduced, but it did not work. However, having a reduced number of women candidates in the presidential race is a big blow for the 50-50 campaign.”
Earlier this week, MEC warned that it could still disqualify any candidate anytime before the polling date if there is evidence that a candidate suppressed some material facts at the time of nomination which could have led to disqualification.
MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa told The Nation on Monday that the electoral body would consider evidence tendered by Malawians with regard to the candidature of any person who submitted nomination papers to the commission.
