Ansah, MEC brass will be held liable for Malawi electoral sham – Chilumpha

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah and other senior officials will be held liable to any disturbances that may arise from people’s dissastisafaction with MEC’s electoral sham, former vice-president Cassim Chilumpha who is spokesman of  opposition parties bloc.

The t10-party grouping wants suspended alongside Ansah are MEC chief elections officer Sam Alfandika and chairperson for electoral services committee Jean Mathanga to allow a forensic audit of equipment and data in the electoral body’s custody

But Ansah and other senior officials have defiantky said they will not step aside.

Chilumpha, who is a leader of the Assembly for Democracy and Development (ADD), said the matter raises questions that need to be addressed.

“The same MEC, through its chair for electoral services Jean Mathanga, confirmed ownership of the machines, but later disowned the machines. That is why we are calling them to pave the way for investigations. How can people trust an electoral body behaving this way to run elections,” said Chilumpha.

He warned MEC’s actions might backfire some day.

Chilumpha said if nothing is done to address why and how the biometric voter registration kit [BVRK] equipment got stolen and part of it recovered in Mozambique, the elections next year will be “a sham.”

He said the integrity of MEC has been thrown in “serious doubt”.

Chilumpha said:“ That is why we want to see the top MEC officials pave the way for independent investigations.”

The BVRK number 1962 is said to have been stolen in transit from Mzuzu in September and was recovered in Mozambique with some parts missing.

Besides the suspension of MEC top brass, the  opposition  parties were seeking the technical and material support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Department for International Development (DfID) and the European Union to carry out an independent forensic audit to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.

The opposition grouping comprises ADD, People’s Party (PP), People’s Progressive Movement (PPM), United Transformation Movement (UTM), Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde), People’s Transformation Party (Petra), Alliance for Democracy (Aford), Malawi Democratic Party (MDP), Republican Party (RP) and the New Labour Party (NLP).

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