African Elections Project (Accra)
20 May 2009
Lilongwe — The Malawi Electoral Commission is counting votes after the country's presidential and parliamentary elections on Tuesday and expects to begin making results announcements on Wednesday morning, reports the African Elections Project. A compilation of the project's latest reports:
Next Results Announcement at 09:00 on May 20. This follows the first official update from Malawi Electoral Commission Chairperson Justice Anastasia Msosa at about 03:00 hrs of Wednesday morning.
In the announcement based on various polling stations in selected districts which MEC has verified, the trend shows that that DPP is relatively in the lead at both presidential and parliamentary level. The polling stations include those from Mwanza, Dedza South, Karonga, Blantyre, Mangochi and Nsanje.
However the trend will be clear hopefully only after 09:00 hrs when the next official update will be given.
According to one observer who did not want to be named, the six-hour gap appears to be "too long bearing" in mind that the MEC is expected to be increasing the frequency of updates now that the polls closed over nine hours earler. "This is unacceptable. The six-hour gap is not good." He said.
Results Yet To Be Announced
The temptation to keep listen to and believe alternative results outlets is high as time ticks away into the early hours of May 20, a day after polling took place. Over two hours ago, Malawi Electoral Commission Chairperson Anastasia Msosa told the nation that the official results would start a little after midnight.
However silence is reigning at the National Results Centre with the exception of most people being glued to MBC Radio One which is busy announcing unofficial results. MBC has reported stationed its personnel almost all reporting stations throught the country.
Maybe the Electoral Commission is justified in delaying the release as part of the measure to ensure that they give final and official results per constituency.
Meanwhile the observers, officers, monitors and media personnel in the hall seem held in suspense. A few others that had come at the close of the polls have decided to go and get some sleep before returning to the Results Centre at the dawn of the day May 20.
A few have been spotted looking bored the Results hall which though well decorated is only a quarter full.
Winds blew presidential votes away in Lilongwe
A mysterious wind in Lilongwe Nsinja constituency at midday today left presiding officer Solobosi Chimpala in dilemma as it took marked presidential votes with it.
Chimpala and other electoral staff were then forced to play catch up with the wind, an effort that saw them recover only three-quarters of the votes.
This is unprecedented in Malawi's electoral history and could throw the choice of some substantial numbers of voters as good as null and void.
The development prompted electoral officials from the district, including the district commissioner, to pay an impromptu visit.
Voting later continued.
What happens next, after the incident, remains unclear as the Electoral Commission has not made any statement.
Spilled ink blamed for null, void votes
Counting of votes at some polling centres in Nsanje has started, with results indicating so far spilled ink could contribute towards increased numbers of null and void votes.
Results from Sankhulani, a polling centre in the district, for example, reveal discomforting results of the problem.
Out of 619 votes cast, 63 were null and void. Most of these were a result of spilled ink as voters, eager to vote before indelible voting ink dried up, messes up their ballots leaving electoral staff with no option but discard their choice.
At Mchinji district's Nkanda centre, the problem is the same as spilled ink militate against voters' choices of leaders.
There have been concerns over the level of civic education in the run up to the elections, but most organizations engaged in civic education services blamed inadequate funding for the malaise.
The Electoral Commission, however, got none of it and accused the organizations of cheating over their capacity.
It says that one of the conditions for awarding voter and civic education certificates was because of capacity. The commission most organizations joined the fray when they had nothing in their coffers, a situation that affected the quality of civic education.
Voting: Karonga not through
Failure to open some polling centres on time has resulted into stretching of voting time for voters in Karonga district.
Reports indicate that most polling centres - including in Ntchisi district - where policymakers cite transport as one of the biggest challenges impacting negatively on development - closed business by 6pm, the time set by the Electoral Commission.
Not for Karonga, where voting is still going on at Mwenelondo polling centre in Karonga Central constituency.
The hitches for the district started with early morning owing to delays in distributing voters' rolls, according to Karonga District Commissioner Gasten Macheka.
Macheka said delivery of electoral materials to some impassable centres (by road) was another challenge. This forced the Electoral Commission to provide helicopters but, instead of distributing the materials to eight needy areas, the helicopter only delivered the materials in three centres- Sanambe in Karonga South and Muwisi and Chisi in Karonga North. This left out Ndemange, Mapwa, Ikwawu and Nungu polling centres.
He said, for officials to reach out to Ndemange, they would have to walk over a distance of five kilometers on foot.
Voting at Mwenelondo started at 8:00am, two hours later than official opening time.
The Electoral Commission said earlier in the day voting time would be extended for late-opening centres.
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Bravo people of Malawi for a wonderful and peaceful elections and hope to accepts the results in the very same manner we conducted on the polling day. May God bless you all and mother Malawi