By: Draxon Maloya.Malawi. (News of The South) – Despite there being a few weeks before Malawi goes to the Presidential polls, parliamentarians and ward councillors from across political parties absented themselves from the open election data orientation for Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and political parties event that was held in the city of Mzuzu on Friday.
The meeting which was aimed at equipping electoral stakeholders on a number of issues that may affect the election results dwelled on the importance of the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) which has proven to be accurate in many parts of the world.
The Youth and Innovations Assistant at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Kenneth Harry Msiska was forced to delay the commencement of the meeting by almost two hours while trying to phone political leaders about the importance of attending the meeting but that did not yield anything because none of the political parties availed.
And during his presentation Msiska dwelled much on the importance of having rightful monitors throughout the electoral process which starts with the voter registration exercise.
He further said that political parties require training on the importance of interpreting the findings of the Parallel Vote Tabulation which is a proven methodology that allows nonpartisan citizen observers to systematically assess the quality of voting and counting processes.
Meanwhile the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Regional Governor for the north Kenneth Sanga and the Peoples Party (PP) Spokesperson Axon Kalayire denied having received any invitation to attend the PVT meeting.
And in his contribution an academician from the University of Livingstonia George Phiri commended the NDI for the initiative of training the electoral stakeholders which he said will go a long way in sensitizing political players on a number of electoral issues. The parallel vote tabulations have the ability to expose fraud and can identify shortcomings in the electoral process, they provide an objective basis for making improvements and seeking peaceful resolution to complaints, It is very disappointing that all the political parties we have decided to boycott this meeting which I believe would have been of great help to them not just for this election alone but even other elections in future,“ Phiri said. Malawians have less than 50 days before they vote in the third multiparty general elections since 1993 when the United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Bakiri Muluzi was voted as the first democratically elected president.
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