EU to present final Malawi poll election report February after ruling
Chief election observer for the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Malawi says the final election report which caused stir in opposition political circles will be presented in February.
Miroslav Poche has said the report will be presented after the Constitutional Court ruling on the landmark presidential election case.
He however said he is disappointed his team has not been able to present their final report of its May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections following resentment from local stakeholders.
Poche explained that the team has postponed the publishing of the report following consultations with heads of missions of various EU member States based in the country and EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
He said: “We decided to postpone our publishing of our final report not because of the public pressure, but we decided not to interfere in the public debate. The report has so many technical issues, recommendations on voting rules, use of State or public media, it could never interfere with the ongoing judicial process.”
He further said the report was initially slated for release in September last year, but was postponed due to the political unrest in the country.
“We will never interfere with ongoing judicial processes. We did [consider the situation], but, again, I must reiterate that the final report has nothing to do with the court decision, it deals with different things,” said Poche.
UTM Party and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) vehemently rejected to the report publication before the verdict in the presidential case.
Malawi Law Society also feared the report would influence the outcome of the presidential case.
The Constitutional Court has until February to determine the case in which Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera and UTM Party’s Saulos Chilima are disputing the President Peter Mutharika re-election in May 2019 polls.
The EU EOM had 83 observers at 342 polling stations across 120 of the country’s 193 parliamentary constituencies in 27 of the 28 districts during the elections, but released a preliminary statement on May 23 2019, four days before MEC announced the official presidential election results.
After the elections, the EU, Commonwealth, Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) and other foreign observer missions largely stated in the aftermath of the disputed elections that the country’s sixth post-independence general elections were free, fair and credible.
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I don’t understand this so called EU
How they can come with final report yet the court not ready
Go home please and don’t come back! Everything you are saying was already revealed in the court case so bye!
This best thing is for the EU and all international observers should do is to apologize for declaring the elections free and fair when now we clearly know they were not. Make that apology statement whilst you are back in Europe then you can come in February to present the apology letter to the nation and ask for forgiveness. Nothing more nothing less.
Dunderhead. Will always be.
Where have you been with your stupid report you are bringing it 8 months after election? We have beenreliably and well informed that Mutharika wrote you to come with the report in order to defeat justice but God forbid as whatever Mutharika is doing in closed doors and in the dark, is always being exposed, but he is so stubborn and greedy for power hence employing every tactic he knows! God is watching and is in control
Why now, probably eight months after the elections! We don’t need that report! It is too late, too biased and too useless!! We’ve found our own ways of solving what affects us!! Some development partners have proved beyond reasonable doubt to be very bent at causing havoc in Malawi by supporting unjust means of doing things and EU is one of them!! I for one as Malawian is strongly forced to believe that EU is ready to support somebody because that somebody promised them something, and based on that EU is ready to forgo justice to get what they want… Read more »