My Diary

The result of failing to learn

One more contentious primary election in the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has come but has not really gone.

In its wake, the primary election in Dedza East constituency where the incumbent Juliana Lunguzi was facing three aspirants has left a bitter taste in the mouth of those who considered ticking the box with the black cockerel and the face of its president Lazarus Chakwera come May 21 2019.

Dedza East, alongside Salima North West constituency where the incumbent is Jessie Kabwila, have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Primary elections in these constituencies have been postponed on several occasions.

News of irregularities during MCP primaries have been rife and there have been few where an incumbent has not lost without crying foul.

Rumours have abound of candidates facing threats and intimidation, of deliberate sidelining of candidates from planning meetings and not providing them with key information relating to the election itself.

The other day, the same unruly lakeshore regional office which botched up the Dedza East election this past weekend was in the news for requesting candidates in the two constituencies to arm themselves with bodyguards for their own safety.

What does it mean when a political party advises its candidates to procure the services of bodyguards just to participate in a primary election?

Even after this incident, the party leadership just gave the regional committee a slap on the wrist with an instruction to sin no more.

If MCP had known that primary elections would bring them into such disrepute, they would have acted on the regional committee long before this.

Much as it is normal in Malawi elections for candidates not to accept results, the occurrences during the MCP primaries have been too numerous to ignore.

If what happened in Dedza East is anything to go by, the party did not learn anything and did little to ensure the problem do not recur.

In the previous elections, there were concerns about the bias of presiding officers, some of whom were known friends of candidates.

The issue of transportation of delegates was another contentious issue which resulted in the playing field not being leveled. The more resources a candidate had, the more delegates he or she would ferry to the venue of the primaries and that was not just fair.

But come the day of the Dedza East primaries, it was clear MCP attempts to correct the anomalies and irregularities of the past elections had failed again.

The individual who presided over the elections, at the appointment of the regional committee, does not even hold a position in the national executive committee. That alone made the legitimacy of the whole process questionable.

It was the same MCP that decided, without the presence of one of the candidates, that delegates would not be ferried to the venue by the candidates but the party itself.

It is only proper to assume that by not ferrying members of area committtees, 36 if the reports are to be trusted, meant that the whole election was not free and fair.

It can only be assumed that this was a deliberate move by the regional office to disenfranchise delegates deemed to be supporters of Lunguzi.

The losing candidate, Patrick Bandawe, does not even know that it was irregular to adopt delegates of other candidates as his own. He thought it was not a problem that he, assisted by the other candidates, was actually cheating.

That just shows that MCP did not have laid down regulations in conducting these primaries.

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