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| Commissioner Mrs Nancy Tembo, Chairperson Media, Civic and Voter Education Committee |
Good Morning,
Welcome to Ku Chawe Inn
Today we are meeting as the
task force on preparations for the presidential candidates’ debates and I wish
to welcome you all. I understand that this is the third meeting and may I commend
you for the ground work that you have already done.
Distinguished members, I have
been informed that you have already formed sub-groups on specific tasks which
are Coordination, Resource Mobilisation, Stakeholders Engagement, Issue
Generation and Debate structure/format, hosting and programming.
I am also informed that NAMISA
has done some ground work as well. I wish to encourage you to share with this
taskforce and come up with one best product for our mother Malawi.
Distinguished Members, the
Commission would like to see all the efforts concentrated and directed towards
this initiative be coordinated by this taskforce.
Distinguished Members, This
will be the first time the country will hold presidential debates and wherever
the history of this first debate will be recited, your names will be mentioned
also. None of us would want our names to be associated with a fiasco of a debate.
I, therefore, challenge you, Distinguished Members, to put all your efforts and
energies into the organisation of this debate.
Distinguished Members, as a
Commission we understand that this is the busiest time in the electoral
calendar but I assure you that we shall always be present for the meetings of
this task force. I also implore you to do the same, try to avoid situations
where you have to delegate down wards your attendance to the task force
meetings. In some instances delegation affects implementation of activities
because coordination and collaboration can be disjointed if the composition of the
team like this one keeps on changing every time there is a meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me
to say something about why the Commission thought of holding presidential
debates. Those of us who have followed previous elections will remember that we
used to have candidates debates at parliamentary level. They brought a lot of
excitement to candidates and the electorate. We are grateful for our stakeholders
that have come in to express interest to conduct debates for parliamentary and
local government elections candidates. We would urge as MEC that you ensure
there is coordination. There should be a mechanism of ensuring even geographical
distribution of the debates. There should not be high concentration in some
areas while others are starving. There should be a good mix up of the rural and
urban areas especially on the local elections. Temptations can be high to
concentrate the debates in the urban and other easy-to reach areas but let us
do our best to avert this situation.
Ladies and gentlemen, the
Commission expects more excitement for the presidential debates but we have to
work for this. This will be the only
forum provided to the electorates to compare policies and views of all
presidential candidates on a single platform. This will go a long way in
helping them make informed decisions. Therefore, we need to plan and execute
the presidential debates in a manner that is attractive.
Distinguished Members, we are
lucky that other countries have done it successfully before us and we can learn
from them. We should applaud NDI who have already indicated that they might
bring an international expert on presidential debates to help us in capacity building.
If there are countries holding elections sooner than us, it would be prudent,
funds permitting, for some members to go on a study tour just to learn from
them. There also other countries, like
Kenya, which have had Presidential debates.
This is an area we can learn from.
We cannot reinvent the wheel but definitely we can modify to suit our
context.
With these remarks, Distinguished
Members, I have the honour to declare this taskforce meeting opened.
May the Almighty God bless you
Bless
our Nation
Thank
you very much
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