Pre-election squabbles can, should be avoided

With political temperatures rising almost every day as the country draws closer to its first-ever tripartite elections, the last thing the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) should be seen doing is stoking up the fires. Seemingly harmless logistical hiccups cannot always be perceived that way in a country that thrives on conspiracy theories and where there is little trust between and among people.
It was commendable that MEC tried its best to be transparent in announcing both the departure in Zimbabwe and the arrival in Malawi of the trucks carrying tents and gas lamps borrowed from that country’s electoral body. Anyone who wanted to follow the process throughout had the opportunity to do so and it would have been great if all went according to plan and without any hustles.
Come yesterday morning, with all interested institutions and individuals present to witness the opening of the containers, MEC could not perform the function and, understandably, tempers started rising. There might be an innocent explanation for that, but better planning and organisation by the commission as the central player in the electoral game could have prevented the hullaballoo that was witnessed.
That said, it is also important for political parties and other players in the electoral process to remain level-headed throughout the whole process. Problems will emerge and mistakes will be made, but it is ridiculous to link everything to a possibility of rigging. The more these claims are made, the more hollow they sound and the danger is that something more serious will happen and genuine cries will be ignored if an image of cry babies is created.
It must be pointed out that the current commission comprises people nominated by political parties represented in the just dissolved Parliament. It is difficult, therefore, to sustain accusations of mischief unless one assumes that there is inside information coming from those representatives on some fishy activities within the electoral body.
It is in everybody’s interest to have a credible election come May 20 and it is important that we are all vigilant to ensure that we achieve exactly that. Should some things not add up, it is important to bear in mind that not every hint of inefficiency within the electoral body is ill-intentioned. We should have the capacity to differentiate honest mistakes from mischief.
Briefs
6 000 TB cases not detected
The Ministry of Health says there are about 6 000 tuberculosis (TB) cases that have not been detected and treated in the country, mainly because of difficulties to reach all patients. Addressing journalists in Lilongwe recently, chief of health services in the ministry Dr Charles Mwansambo said despite the ministry not reaching all TB patients, the country is doing well in the fight against the disease. Said Mwansambo: “The 6 000 figure is hypothetical, but we need to do a lot to reach these people if we want to stop the spread of TB. Our detection rate is at 78 percent, which means that we are trying our best. While we may seem to have been experiencing some challenges in TB control and prevention, the proportion of TB patients successfully cured at the time they finish treatment has been above the World Health Organisation recommended 85 percent.”—Christopher Jimu, Staff Reporter