“Voter apathy is of concern”

On December 22, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) held by-elections in Zomba Chisi Constituency, Mtope Ward in Mchinji West Constituency and Ngala Ward in Lilongwe Msozi North Constituency, but the elections were highly shunned. ALBERT SHARRA caught up with MEC’s director of media and public relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa on the issue.

Q

: Like the two previous by-elections, the ones held on 22 December by-elections were highly shunned. How can we understand the recurrence of this problem and what does this speak of MEC and other electoral stakeholders?

A

: It has been a trend that participation during by-elections has been much less if compared to national elections. In all the three areas, we had 67 557 registered voters and a total of 16 126 voters turned up for polling representing a voter turnout of 23.87 percent. The highest percentage voter turnout was 36.56 registered in Zomba Chisi Constituency while the lowest was 13.88 in Ngala Ward. The voter turnout this time around is less satisfactory if compared to the turn out in the by-elections held on August 25 this year. During the August 25 by-elections held in five wards, the average voter turnout was 25.87 percent.

There could be a nexus of factors underlying this trend and there is a need for a proper and thorough research to unearth the causes. If we know the underlying causes we can come up with proper interventions. In the run up to every election, MEC has got several voter education and mobilisation interventions that it conducts and this begs a question: Why should the same interventions work during the tripartite election with a turnout of 70.1 percent and achieve less during by-elections? This also point to existence of exogenous factors leading to voter apathy. We need to soberly study this and definitely, the findings will show some factors beyond MEC.

Q

: With the vote highly shunned, should Malawians take the results a real reflection of the people in the affected areas?

A

: The results of an election reflect the will of the people who have cast their votes. If others hold their contrary opinion or will, they should express it by voting. Other than through voting, such a will or opinion will not count. Malawi uses the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) electoral system whereby the one with the highest number of votes carries the day regardless of how many people turned up for voting. What it means is that a candidate can even carry the day with one vote difference. In Malawi, voting is not compulsory. People can choose to register and then not show up for voting. No one will question them like in countries like Australia where voting is compulsory by law. In some cases people are fined for not voting.

In all electoral systems what counts in determining the winner is the number of votes casted. Its percentage to the total of the registered voters does not count.

Q

: Like the previous by-elections, only three ‘big’ parties (MCP, DPP and PP) participated in the elections. Doesn’t this justify the call for a law to ensure that political parties than shun elections should be deregistered?

A

: There is already debate around this area and

there is a draft law being championed by the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) on registration and deregistration of political parties. The current scenario can help inform the debate. The commission will not prescribe a concoction on this, but let the stakeholders decide. In other countries, the electoral management body also registers political parties, but in Malawi, MEC has no such powers. So what we can do is to provide the information that can inform the debate and the society makes a decision on what it deems fit and suitable for its democracy.

Q

: We also noted less participation of the civil society groups in civic and voter education. What happened? Could this also have affected the turnout in the by-elections?

A

: MEC has also noted less participation of the civil society organisations accredited to conduct voter education. The explanation could be lack of funding as there is always not enough time for most of them to approach donors and get funding. We value their support in mobilising the public to vote. We urge them to continue using their accreditation to conduct civic and voter education whenever there are by-elections. We encourage them to adopt the cycle approach to elections management, thus, voter education should be a continuing exercise even in-between the ballot period. If they have continuous programmes on voter education, it will not be a big problem for them to participate in by-elections. As we move towards 2019 we plan to have accreditation done early so that they will have ample time to approach development partners to give them funding.

Q

: There are calls that the 2019 polls should feature few political parties that look serious, sustainable and are genuine and promises to be active throughout. What is MEC’s position?

A

: MEC will not prescribe a formula for deciding who contests in the elections. The MEC works within the law. Anyone with ideas on how the 2019 elections can have slim number of parties participating, they are free to initiate the process of legal reform. However, there is already a task force looking into issues of electoral reforms. Such ideas could be better be channelled through the task force for consideration.

Q

: We have three years before 2019 polls, how can you describe the preparations so far?

A

: The MEC adopted the electoral cycle to elections management. This means the preparations for 2019 elections have started now. We are looking into issues of capacity building of MEC, political parties and other stakeholders and also electoral reforms. Next year, MEC will look into issues of demarcation so that we address all the inconsistencies that are existing. It will be a thorough exercise and will involve all stakeholders. MEC is also working with the National Registration Bureau on how we can populate the voters’ role using information from the national register. This will also be a focus for 2016. Our urge is also to political parties to have the same approach. They should start preparing for 2019 elections now by strengthening their structures and training their people.

Q

: Any last comment?

A

: The issue of voter apathy is of concern not only to MEC, but all stakeholders. While we need all registrants to show up for voting, political parties also need the votes to get the seats. This issue should be of concern to them as regarding where their supporters were on the polling day. These are the people who showed up in large numbers during campaign rallies. Parties should also question their supporters why they never voted. n