Election row continues

The outcome of Malawi’s election on Wednesday is going to be a highly disputed affair if comments by political analysts and opposition parties are anything to go by. “Next week’s elections won’t be fair or free,” said Heatherwick Ntaba, treasurer of the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in an address to international observers at a briefing on Thursday. He said his party was concerned at the way in which the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) of President Bakili Muluzi had allegedly “manipulated and dominated” the radio broadcasts by the country’s broadcasting corporation, MBC. “Muluzi and his functionaries have been the only people allowed airtime to campaign,” Ntaba said, adding that none of their rallies or gatherings were covered by the MBC. Louis Chimwanga, Ntaba’s colleague and the MCP’s elections chief, alleged UDF-sponsored violence against his party’s supporters and candidates has been on the rise. “Our vehicles have been stoned and burned and one of our candidates was kidnapped and taken to the home of a UDF minister,” Chimwanga said. Adding to the controversy is a report by a consortium of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in which it claims that more than 160,000 potential voters have been denied the right to register. “The failure by the electoral commission to supply sufficient registration materials at centres in the northern and central regions has disenfranchised potential voters who waited for days to register,” the report said. The NGOs urged the commission to reopen registration at these centres, “even at this late stage of the process”. In addition, the failure to address bread and butter issues in the election campaign has subverted the process, commentators told IRIN. “Character assassinations and personality issues have occupied centre stage in this campaign,” said Silvester Nyirongo, a political analyst. “The opposition parties campaigns have revolved around attacking the personalities of government ministers and MPs, while the ruling party has concentrated its campaign on blaming the MCP for its failures when it ruled Malawi under the late Kamuzu Banda,” Nyirongo said, adding that the parties have been silent on how they plan to tackle issues of illiteracy and poverty which are, in his opinion, the immediate challenges facing the country. According to 1997 UNDP figures, Malawi has an illiteracy rate of nearly 65 percent, while nearly 60 percent of the population live below the poverty datum line. The UNDP also found that the country’s population is overwhelmingly rural, out of which only about 20 percent have access to running water. The UNDP’s Faday Guaradzimba told IRIN that although the UDF has made education free mainly in the rural areas, the quality of teaching needs to be seriously addressed. “The training of teachers and the curriculum issues need to be debated to determine the desired outcomes to be served by education.”