Malawi Electoral Commission assures of credible polls
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has confidently assured that it will deliver free, fair and credible elections which will also be transparent and cost-effectove May 21 2019 Tripartite elections billed as watershed.
MEC Commissioner, Mary Nkosi was speaking Monday in Lilongwe when she opened a three-day workshop for media practitioners on election monitoring and reporting where spokespersons of political parties were also in attendance, among other stakeholders.
Stakeholders have been expressing fear that there are t some cobwebs that have the potential to spark violence and mar the May 21 Tripartite Elections.
But Nkosi saud MEC was prepared ti deal with any eventualities.
“We at MEC are geared to conduct this year’s elections in transparent, fair and professional manner than ever before,” said Nkosi, urging the media to take a leading role in disseminating “the right information” to the masses.
Nkosi said it was important for the media to always abide by the electoral media code of conduct which was developed by the electoral body.
She also advised media managers to scrutinise and verify stories that are posted on social media platform before publishing them, saying some of such stories aim at misleading and causing panic amongst the electorate.
“As media managers please try as much as possible to verify and make research on stories which are posted on social media so that the electorate gets the right information,” she said.
Commonwealth Communications Director, Neil Ford said biased reporting on electoral issues is the common problem in Africa.
Ford said in almost all African countries, public broadcasters favour the ruling parties while the private media favour opposition parties, a tendency which he said is counterproductive in electoral reporting.
“It is the duty of the media to make the voters know about all candidates so that they make the right choice.
“Let the public broadcasters and the private media come up with programmes that will make the voters know their candidates and who to vote for,” he said.
Ford’s remarks come barely few days after Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Henry Mussa advised Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to open up and feature opposition parties in their programming.
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When a nation has been thrown to leaders who are like a headless chicken, what good do you expect?That evil who cried on election day and later GOD provided good riddance from our land, may his soul suffer more, could be the yard stick for MEC this year.
Let’s hope this time round someone from MEC will not shade tears as was the case in 2014.
Credible electoral results, my foot, with all the electoral materials missing, what a lie, you have not yet cleaned you office of irregularities yet you have the audicity to claim you will deliver credible results, mind you, you are already at fault. Do not full us. These uncleared issues will spring up in the end.