MEC, Fedoma draft guidelines on disability inclusive elections

Pushing the agenda for inclusive elections forward, Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA) organized a day long for disability organizations and MEC to draft guidelines on disability inclusive elections.

The meeting held at Game Haven in Thyolo on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 was also attended by FEDOMA member organizations.

In his remarks, MEC Deputy Chief Elections Officer (Operations), Mr Harris Potani said the Commission was pleased with the stand taken by FEDOMA to start  the agenda for inclusive elections now whilst there was still time.

Mr Potani said MEC was committed to reform agenda that will help make future elections inclusive of all persons regardless of their disabilities.

“Some of the issues coming out will be implemented administratively because they do not require changing of the law. Those with legal implications we will have to take advantage of the ongoing electoral reforms process to have them implemented into law,” he said.

In his remarks, the executive director of FEDOMA, Mr Action Amos said the meeting was part of the in-between-the-ballot activities his organization had planned to undertake.

“During elections period it is difficult to sit down and discuss like we are doing today because everyone is preoccupied. But now as we have the time before the next elections we have to develop the guidelines that will help people with disabilities to participate in elections without hindrances,” he said.

At the end of the workshop, the participants, with the facilitation of Associate Professor Edge Kanyongolo and Dr Enoch Chilemba, both law lecturers from Chancellor College, developed draft guidelines on disability inclusive elections.

This workshop was a follow up to the one held on July 30, 2015 in Blantyre where MEC and FEDOMA discussed inclusive elections.

RESPONSE TO ARTICLE “AUDIT REVEALS ABUSE AT MEC”

Introduction

The Malawi Electoral Commission wishes to clarify issues that were grossly misrepresented in a newspaper article, “Audit Reveals Abuse at MEC” which appeared in the Weekend Nation of June 20, 2015.

The article, based on a draft report leaked from the National Audit Office, claimed that a total of 55 audit queries totaling roughly K1 billion were unaccounted for the period 2008 to 2012 thereby raising fears that the money might have been abused.

The current Commission would like to state categorically that it is not answerable for issues arising from management of the 2009 elections. The current Commissioners were appointed on May 19, 2012 with the Chairman joining them on 9th October, 2012.

However, since the institution has perpetual succession, the secretariat remains responsible and would like to give an explanation on the issues that were misrepresented in the newspaper article and also inform the public about measures that have been in place to ensure financial prudence. 2

Reconciling old financial records

When the current Commissioners were appointed, MEC had just gone through two audits. The first one was by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) in 2010 that showed K1, 585,033,030.02 was not accounted for.

Following these revelations, Government shut down the MEC and instituted a forensic audit from December 2010 to April 2011 in order to come to the bottom of the unaccounted for funds. The audit was carried out by KPMG.

The forensic audit managed to reconcile about K1.1 billion of the K1.5 billion mentioned in the earlier audit report.

The remaining K467 million could not be reconciled because the auditors were unable to access relevant supporting documents. The documents could not be made available to the auditors because they had been mishandled by agents of the state namely the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Fiscal Police when they were investigating reports of suspected fraud on MEC finance staff in 2009. The documents could hence not be traced. The members of staff who were arraigned were discharged by the competent court of law.

When this Commission was appointed, it directed the internal audit department of the Commission to carry out further reconciliations of the amount unaccounted for in the forensic audit. The Internal Audit Department managed to authenticate a further K106 million of the K467 million previously stated as unaccounted for. This was a major exercise and it could not continue as the Commission had now started activities leading to the 2014 tripartite elections. 3

The Commission is of the view that the audit issues are not an issue of fraud but just unavailability of accounting records due to reasons already stated.

The very same reasons that documents could not be found because they were mishandled are the same why it was not possible to present them to the NAO auditors.

Issues that are being raised in the report and subsequently in the news article were responded to. The documentation and explanations supporting transactions that are alleged to be missing were provided. To that effect there shouldn’t be an issue raising allegations of financial mismanagement at the Commission.

Improving financial management

With the experience MEC had been through, the current Commission embarked on initiatives to strengthen internal financial controls and corporate governance and so far it has managed to:

o Set up an internal audit department headed by a director with five full time staff.

o Set up an Audit Committee headed by a Commissioner to which the Internal Audit Department reports.

o Initiate audits by private firms. Apart from audits by the National Audit Office, the Commission is audited by a private firm, Deloitte. It is anticipated that in December Deloitte will be conducting audit for 2014/2015 financial year. The purpose is that queries arising should be answerable by the responsible persons.

4

Travel allowances for Commissioners and staff for trips not undertaken in June 2012

When Commissioners were appointed they were supposed to go on study visits to Kenya and South Africa accompanied by staff. The trips were cancelled due to other circumstances after allowances had already been paid. It was arranged that when the trips would be rescheduled the Commissioners and staff would use the same allowances and only get a difference if need be. The trips were rescheduled and Commissioner Dr Bernard Malango and Ms Nkovole who were supposed to go to Kenya went to Zambia from 7 to 13 April, 2013. Also in the team to Zambia were Commissioners Dr Wellington Nakanga, Commissioner Mrs Nancy Tembo, former Commissioner Dr Bertha Simwaka and Mr Harris Potani. Commissioner Mrs Elvey Mtafu who was supposed to travel to South Africa took the trip from 24 to 30th September 2012 to the same country. This was explained to the auditors and it was dropped in subsequent draft audit report that National Audit Office provided to MEC.

There is also an allegation that other Commissioners and staff did not provide their passports for verification during the exercise. This is not true as the passports were provided. This issue was also dropped after the explanation.

On failure to account for nomination fees

For the 2009 the nomination fees were received at council level. It happened that some councils did not bring all the documentation when remitting their reports to the Commission. The auditors from the National Audit Office (NAO) were 5

given all the resources to go and verify in the councils and up to date MEC is waiting for their report on what they found out.

As a matter of fact, the analysis of the nomination fees from the districts, assumed that all nomination fees were paid at the districts. However, candidates for the DPP were paid for by Bineth Trust as a lump sum and their nomination fees could not therefore have come from the districts.

Related to this, the auditors also raised an issue on the refund of K19.1 million which MEC gave to Bineth Trust for the candidates who competed on the ticket of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). MEC clarified to them that the party paid K19.2 million for all its candidates through the Trust and that is why a refund for the candidates who qualified had to be made to the Trust.

Postponement of by-elections

The Commission would also like to clarify that the Local Government By-elections were not postponed because funding was exhausted but that we had not received funding for the by-elections. Funds for by-elections are requested separately.

Conclusion and advice

The Commission appreciates the role played by the media in promoting transparency and accountability but at the same time it expects the media and other professionals to be responsible. Issues raised in a preliminary audit report are not for public consumption until the final report, which is a public document, is out. This was explained to the author that the allegations being raised in the 6

report were clarified and dropped in subsequent reports therefore publishing them now could send false information to the public. The Commission also expects auditors to conduct themselves in a manner that does not erode the confidence clients have in them.

The Commission is assuring all stakeholders that it is committed to financial diligence and further urges those who might wish to seek clarification to contact the undersigned on ceo@mec.org.mw.

Dated at Blantyre this 25th day of June, 2015.

Willie Kalonga

Chief Elections Officer

MEC HOLDS BRIDGE TRAINING ON DELIMINATION AND ELECTIONS

With support from the European Union, the Malawi Electoral Commission has organized a five day training workshop for MEC Commissioners, Secretaries’ General and Directors of Elections from political parties at Malawi Sun Hotel in Blantyre.

The training, which started Monday, October 5, 2015 will focus on one Building Resources in Democracy Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) module which is Delimitation and Elections.

Speaking during the opening, Chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission Justice Maxon Mbendera SC said the training was important as it could not have come at a better time than when MEC is preparing to have a thorough demarcation exercise where we are going to redefine wards and boundaries of all constituencies in the country. The course will expose us to various practices around the globe.

“

 The law gives powers to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to determine the number of constituencies for purposes of elections and to undertake or supervise the demarcation of wards. In the case of constituencies, the overriding criterion is that of ensuring equitable representation as MEC is encouraged to ensure that “constituencies contain approximately equal number of voters eligible to register” he said.

He added that the last time boundary delimitation was undertaken was 1998, about 17 years ago. This has gone beyond the five-year interval as required by the Constitution.

“ In 2014, the Commission only finalized delimitation of ward boundaries, the process of which had started in 2010. It is apparent, therefore, that the current sizes and number of constituencies and wards do not therefore reflect the basic democratic principles as laid down in the Constitution.” He said  

MEC Chairman Justice Mbendera SC thanked the European Union for the support that enabled holding of the training course.

“I take the opportunity to thank the European Union who have supported the training under the Democratic Governance Programme (DGP). The EU DGP is the biggest supporter to MEC outside the basket fund. We cherish this relation and we pray that it takes us through to 2019.” He said

The MEC Chaiperson also thanked his my fellow Commissioners, leaders of various political parties and staff from secretariat for availing themselves for this training. He ended his address by encouraging the participants to give their full attention and participation for them to appreciate the benefits and get the internationally recognized certificate of attendance.

The training will end on the 9^th of October 2015.

BRIDGEing gender and elections

“Historically, women in Malawi have had low representation in elected positions in local committee, local councils and National Assembly partly because there is still a prevailing traditional perception as to the role of women in the social and political spheres.

“Even though women do vigorously participate in the political process including in mobilizing, registering, campaigning and voting, they do so on behalf of male candidates in the larger part. Something is wrong somewhere, there is great disproportion”.

These were the opening remarks by Commissioner Mrs Elvey Kalonga Mtafu during the opening of the Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) course on Gender and Elections for MEC staff, political parties, civil society organisations and Ministry of Gender.

The training has been organised with support from the European Union Democratic Governance Programme from 1^st to 4^th September, 2015 in Blantyre to sensitize the participants on the importance of women’s empowerment and entry points for gender mainstreaming in the electoral process.

The workshop also aims to inform civil society organizations and women’s advocacy groups about strategies to promote women's participation in electoral processes, provide tools for all participants to critically assess elections from a gender perspective, and offer networking opportunity for women’s advocacy groups.

Commissioner Mtafu said increasing women representation in elected positions was a colossal job to be left to one institution and there was need for concerted efforts of all stakeholders to level the playfield for women participation.

“Female candidacy is an important indicator of the maturity of our democracy which requires renewed attention and support. As much as the Commission would want to push this gender equality agenda, we are limited in our interventions. We need you also to play your part,” she said.

The Commission in the past Tripartite Elections and all subsequent by-elections gave a 25 percent discount on nomination fees for female candidates as a way of encouraging their participation in Parliamentary and Local Government Elections.

“We are yet to appreciate the impact of this gesture as the number of women MPs in the 2014 elections was lower than before. Only 30 women made it to Parliament and 53 to the councils. During the 2009 elections 43 women made it to Parliament.

The BRIDGE training on gender and elections comes five days after announcement of the official results for the Local Government By-elections on 25^th August, 2015 in five wards.

There were 29 candidates who competed in the by-elections but only eight were women.  Khwawa Ward did not have any female candidate while Central Ward in Zomba shined by having four women out of the six candidates of which one came out victorious.

“This reversing trend is worrisome. We all need to join hands and deal with its structural causes. We have included political parties because we know candidates come from political parties and some of the hindrances that choke women participation can ably be dealt with by political parties,” she said.

Commissioner Mtafu observed that the play ground was not level for women as they face intimidation and most cannot withstand violent and turbulent processes leading to party nominations.

Old woman defies her body hit with stroke to vote in Chibanja- ward

BY SEBASTIAN NYIRENDA,

MEC STRINGER.

AN  82 –year- old woman on Tuesday shocked  fellow voters at the New Jerusalem centre in Chibanja ward in Mzuzu when she gathered courage and  defied  her ill health status to vote in the August 25 by-elections.

Nancy Chirwa was hit with stroke some two years ago, she has difficulties in walking but some relatives brought her by their vehicle to let her vote a candidate of her choice.

In an interview she said she loves her country hence she felt duty bound to defy her walking challenges to get to the centre and vote.

She said in an interview she does not want this country to be messed up by bad leaders hence her decision to vote.

Party monitors of other political groupings  including the Malawi Electoral Commission supervisor for the centre Davis Kumwenda  gave her opportunity to vote first even if she came a bit late than other registered voters.

“I love my country, for I don’t want to be ruled by bad leaders hence I defied my health status to vote for a candidate of my choice,” Chirwa said in an interview.

She is one of the 6296 registered voters  in Chibanja ward.

MEC is conducting the by-elections to give room to residents of the ward to choose another councilor to push for developments in the council following the death of Charles Nyirongo who they elected in the May 20, 2014 Tripartite Elections.

Alliance for Democracy’s Gibson Chisale, Democratic Progressive party’s George Manda, Mafundes’ Ulaya Kaunda, Esmey Jere of Umodzi party, Charles Mlogera  of the Malawi Congress and an independent candidate Mike Phiri are the ones to battle for the Local Government polls.

Caption: Nancy Chirwa

Picture credit: Sebastian Nyirenda