African Elections Project (Accra)
15 May 2009
Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) has urged Malawian voters to be peaceful during the remaining part of the electoral process to ensure free and fair elections.
EISA mission leader, Dennis Kadima said this during a press briefing in Blantyre on Thursday when he outlined some of its objectives as Malawi draws closer to the polls.
Kadima said the group hoped Malawians would go through the electoral process peacefully, thereby creating a friendly atmosphere during voting and after announcement of results.
“EISA believes in free and fair elections, and we hope that can be achieved if the country’s citizens went through the whole electoral process without violence,” said Kadima.
He said EISA, an experienced organisation in elections, would enhance electoral processes to ensure inclusiveness and legitimacy, and promote effective participation processes to strengthen institutional accountability and responsiveness.
Kadima said his organisation would also promote principles, values and practices that would lead to a culture of democracy and human rights through interaction with stakeholders.
“There are a number of activities we would like to do during our stay in Malawi, but we hope our success will be based on our interaction with various stakeholders like the Electoral Commission, parties and the civil society,” Kadima said.
He also asked various stakeholders like political parties and party leaders to work together during the whole process up to announcement of results.
“As EISA, we would be working with stakeholders, and periodically visit polling centers and the tally centre, but we urge stakeholders to work together up to the announcement of the results,” he said.
EISA, which is based in South Africa, consists of members from civil society organisations and election management bodies. It has observed elections in the Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
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