Shortage of vehicles hit MEC

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has announced that end of phase two of voters register Inspection closed yesterday, but disclosed that the exercise faced serious challenges of shortage of vehicles.

Chief elections officer Sam Alfandika said in a press statement issued on Friday that of the required 388 vehicles, government only provided 165 for the exercise that covered all the centres in Lilongwe, Ntcheu, Blantyre, Mwanza, Neno, Nsanje and Chikwawa districts.

Alfandika said to make things worse, of the 165 vehicles; some were withdrawn by councils and ministries.

Director of media and public relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa said in an interview yesterday the commission is engaging government to ensure that the next phase is not affected by the similar problem.

He said there is a taskforce from Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), PVHES and MEC looking into the matter.

“But if the worse comes to the worst, MEC will hire from the private sector,” said Mwafulirwa.

Alfandika said in the statement that although the Commission faced that serious challenge, it still managed to open and run the centres throughout the period.

“With the exercise taking place during the rainy season, the demand for reliable rough terrain type of vehicles needs no emphasis.

“The situation was dire in Neno where a tractor had to be used to deploy staff to hard-to-reach centres,” the chief elections officer said.

Alfandika said the commission is engaging relevant authorities and also weighing options to resolve this situation and ensure that there is no recurrence in subsequent electoral activities.

He said despite the transport challenges, there will be no extension to phase two of the voters’ register inspection and verification of entries exercise.

“Phase three of voters register inspection and verification exercise will run from December 26 to 30 2018 and will cover Mangochi, Balaka, Machinga, Zomba, Chiradzulu, Thyolo, Phalombe and Mulanje districts and Luchenza Municipality,” reads the statement.

Alfandika also encouraged registered voters to check the correctness of their registration details by dialing *2019# on TNM and Airtel networks and follow instructions for free.

“The commission is reminding all stakeholders that it is not conducting fresh voter registration for those that failed to do so during the voter registration period,” it reads.