Malawi: Voter apathy hits local elections (continued)

Secondly, in the same week the government was forced to withdraw a bill designed to give the President the power to appoint municipal mayors for all city, district and regional administrations. The move was welcomed by local human rights organisations. According to Association of Progressive Women (APW) in Malawi executive director Reen Kachere, "Democracy is meaningless and incomplete when public positions are filled by [presidential] nomination. Presidents would be able to use the system to reward political friends...but now people will directly choose those they deem capable of delivering their development needs and aspirations" (African Eye News Service 2000a).

Thirdly, Malawi's chief prosecutor dropped charges against leaders of the official opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), including party vice-president John Tembo. The leaders were accused of conspiring to murder bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in 1992 for being outspoken against the former Banda regime. According to public prosecutions director, Fahad Assani, "the case will not benefit the people of Malawi. It will not promote national reconciliation or help rebuild the nation. The matter is alleged to have occurred when Malawi was still a one-party state. We are now a multi-party political dispensation. Nobody wins any advantage if we prosecute the vice president of the main opposition party" (African Eye News Service 2000b). Even the churches welcomed the decision as none of the bishops targeted in the alleged plot were pressing for a public trial.

However, if these various house-cleaning moves were designed to lay the groundwork for peaceful local elections these hopes were dashed by events over the course of November.

Prisoners and awaiting trial suspects were the first to accuse the electoral commission of undermining their democratic rights. Malawi's prisoners were able to vote for the first time ever in the November 21 elections. The Civil Liberties Committee successfully sued for their right to vote, but prisoners complained that political parties and candidates were unable to campaign in the prisons (African Eye News Service 2000c). The Local Government Act prohibits campaign activity in the country's army, police, prisons and public institutions during working hours. Since people work round the clock in prisons, the Electoral Commission ruled that campaign activity was forbidden.

Opposition parties were next to claim that the Electoral Commission favoured the ruling party. MCP and AFORD accused the commission of unfairly disqualifying their candidates. In the case of MCP, in many wards two candidates, both from MCP submitted nomination papers for local races bearing names of either party president Gwanda Chakuamba or party vice president John Tembo. The two leaders are in a feud to control the party. The Electoral Commission ruled that according to the Electoral Law, a party may nominate only one candidate. In many instances their ruling opened the way for UDF candidates to be acclaimed.

The country's politics also remain divided along regional lines, with the MCP strongest in the central region, AFORD in the north and President Muluzi's UDF in the south.

Opposition parties also complained that they received insufficient airtime on national radio and television. According to the MCP the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) has only featured UDF campaign news, despite an agreement that the broadcaster should air messages from all parties (Panfrican News Agency 2000). In response to the criticism, the chair of the Electoral Commission, Justice Kalaile said the commission may merely produce guidelines, not police the media, and opposition parties could take their complaints to the courts. Opposition parties also complained that President Muluzi campaigned on behalf of local candidates with state-owned vehicles and helicopters (Panfrican News Agency 2000). Moreover, UDF supporters allegedly beat up the MCP candidate running in a parliamentary by-election in the central district of Dedza. Despite this treatment, the MCP candidate, Nelson Chuti narrowly won the election with 7 473 votes against UDF candidate Henry Kadzakumanja with 7 350.

University of Malawi students also protested in the run-up to the elections, although the object of their anger was the university decision to increase tuition fees by 3 000% (from R150 to R3 000). President Muluzi is the university chancellor and students vented their anger on university and government vehicles. Police fired teargas and arrested students at the Blantyre campus on 16 November. According to one student leader, "We are not demonstrating, just rehearsing for protests we will stage in the country's three urban areas if the president remains mum on the issue of the fees hike" (African Eye News Service 2000d).

But the government and the Electoral Commission were not the only bodies to feel the heat prior to the elections. Women's rights organisation accused all three major parties of intimidating women who had shown an interest in running for the elections. According to APW, women candidates in the elections have been the victims of name-calling and insults and were marginalized by senior political leaders (African Church Information Service 2000).

Muluzi's reaction to the election result avoided blame for the low turnout saying, "It's unfair to blame us for the voter apathy. In fact, we should be congratulated for recording a landslide." One suspects that the majority of the population of Malawi does not feel the same way.

References

AFRICAN CHURCH INFORMATION SERVICE 2000, November 6.

AFRICAN EYE NEWS SERVICE 2000a, November 2.

AFRICAN EYE NEWS SERVICE 2000b, November 1.

AFRICAN EYE NEWS SERVICE 2000c, November 4.

AFRICAN EYE NEWS SERVICE 2000d, November 17.

PANFRICAN NEWS AGENCY 2000, November 20.