Verna Rainers and John Allen
21 May 2009
President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi appears set to win re-election in polls marred by what monitoring groups have described as the "unashamed bias" of state radio and television during the election campaign.
With a third of the votes counted by early Thursday, Mutharika – of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) – was reported to have pulled more than half the votes so far, and the experienced African election observer Denis Kadima told AllAfrica in an interview that he did not expect the trend to change.
Kadima said the principal opposition challenger, John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party did not perform as well as had been expected in his strongholds.
“There won't be any surprises at this stage… The difference is too big and the trend is such that Tembo will lag behind.”
Kadima said he expected the pace at which election results were being released to speed up and that counting would probably be completed by Friday. Delegations for the presidential inauguration were already arriving, he added.
“I expect that things will continue to go smoothly, and unless the losers come with strong and palpable evidence, it will be very difficult for them to delay this process… The process was managed in a transparent and professional manner, based on what they could afford… with the time given and the skill and resources they had.”
Interim reports issued by domestic and international election observers agreed that the election process on polling day went smoothly, but were unanimously critical of the run-up to the election. State-controlled radio and television came in for particularly strong criticism.
The Malawi Election Support Network, a local coalition of 75 civil society organisations, said in its preliminary report that voting on election day "generally took place without serious problems," but that "a significant number of voters’ names did not appear on the voter registers..." resulting in an undetermined number of voters being disenfranchised.
But, the network added, the political environment ahead of the election did not meet the minimum standards laid down by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
"In particular, concern remained about the heightened level of political tension between the ruling party and opposition and the lack of confidence in certain quarters of the voting public as well as the opposition concerning the impartiality and effectiveness of the Electoral Commission."
The voter registration process was also marred by irregularities, said the network. However, it noted a "significant improvement" in the number of woman candidates.
Kadima’s Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), said in its interim report that the elections had so far been held "in conformity" with SADC principles on election management and monitoring.
But it suggested that the ruling party had more access to campaign finance and state media than the opposition. The governing DPP had “significantly more campaign material than other political parties. The mission received several reports of allegations of the use of state resources for campaign purposes by the incumbent party. The... mission was not in a position to verify these allegations although it views them most seriously."
EISA also deplored what it termed "hate speech" during the campaign.
"Malawi Television and the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation failed to provide equitable access to all parties," it added. "Their coverage excessively favoured the DPP.”
Former Ghanaian president John Kufuor, heading a team of Commonwealth election observers, said election day had been peaceful and the voting process well managed, but key benchmarks for democratic elections had not been met.
The Commonwealth's interim report said that "the overwhelming impact of the exploitation of the incumbency advantage, especially the unashamed bias of the state TV and radio, created a markedly unlevel playing field, tarnishing the otherwise democratic character of the campaign."
The report continued: "We are extremely concerned at the conduct of state-owned media in its coverage of these elections. The Election Law provides that every political party shall have the right to have its 'campaign propaganda’ broadcast on radio by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. In addition, major media had all signed a code of conduct highlighting the need for balanced and fair reporting.
"However, reporting and coverage of the President and DPP's campaign by state radio and TV was unashamedly partisan...
"In the weeks leading up to the day of the election the President and his party were afforded over 97 percent of airtime. At the same time, the same media refused to provide virtually any access to other candidates and parties or to abide by agreements to air party political broadcasts.
"Conversely, it was reported that Joy FM, a private radio station which offered extensive coverage to the opposition, was closed down on the eve of the election by police for allegedly breaking the campaign silence.
"We were pleased that more balanced coverage of the election was provided by some private radio stations, such as Zodiac and Capital, which is an encouraging development. While some opposition parties did have access to coverage in newspapers and private radio stations, this in no way compensates for the blanket coverage afforded to the President and the governing party by the state-owned media."
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I don't agree with the expression that the election in Malawi is flawed on basis of "unashamed" bias of State-controlled media. You should have been there when the same opposition denied to fund the State-controlled media. How come then do you expect services from an institution that you have denied funding? It beats me?
I can now see why Bob said the election was free and fair, with all the rigging going on, it speaks for itself.
I dont know what the SADC minimum requirements s for elections are but this election was certainly not flawed. The best observers in this election are malawians themselves and if you ask them, a majority will say the elections were conducted in a free,transparent and fair manner.How can somebody just come from Ghana two months before the election date and say the state media was blantatly biased against the opposition without even considering the political tradition and situation of malawi?. Mugabe must be laughing hahahaaaaa at this headline?
This is the most flawed election malawi has ever had since 1994. The State media favoured the ruling party who also campaigned using government resources. How can people make good choice in such situation. I strongly feel the oppositon have been robbed because everybody pays tax regardless to the party you may belong.
I totally agree with international obsevers who monitored this election.
I'm from the north of Malawi where we have voted for the ruling party just because of food and not development as such as the DPP has done nothing for us in the past 5 years.
@Dingase- the last time I checked the central and southern parts of Malawi did not have 50 floor skyscrapers, 4 lane highways, shopping malls with D&G, etc. If you don't have food how do you expect to develop?
I categorically do not agree with the above article. As a Malawian who has seen our young democracy grow to this effect and who did not find any reason to vote until May 2009 have seen that the 2009 elections were the most well organised and peaceful elections, rather FREE and FAIR. While I would agree that the state owned media was biased to the government, we cannot conclude that the elections were FLAWED because of the media. The opposition as well had JOY RADIO which never spoke anything good about Mutharika and his government. It is sad that the observer were so much glued to the state media. In fact even the state media, there were reasons for it to be pro-Mutharika. The Parliament for the past TWO Budget sessions, TVM and MBC have been given MK1, equivalent to US$0.005896 respectively. This has happened in two respective years. Therefore, the so called state owned media did not benefit from our taxes. They had their own initiatives. I am strongly very sure that Bingu's party, DPP, was responsible for payment of coverage. Apart from that,they also had other initiatives, like selling of CDs etc. Just as I can pay to be covered in any event I would want, the opposition had the same opportunity to do the same. Like I have said, the media had only US$0.005896 in a year's budget. So they needed money from the corporate world, including parties. So, my take is that the opposition missed the opportunity to be covered equally right from the budget approval through to their failure to pay TVM and MBC to cover their rallies. I think this should be a lesson to the opposition. So Verna Rainers and John Allen, can you please write your article correctly. Probably you should first ask us the Malawians, especially the electorate, on how we have perceived the entire electoral process. We can give you better information than just making unnecessary conclussion. our young democracy has removed the tendency of voting on regional lines. At least this is what you could have written about. Do not always see negative. That is not good judgement. I personnally hated Malawi politics and I did not vote in 1999 and 2004 because it looked very obvious and was not so fascinating. Electorate voted for parties that belonged to their regions. I personally hated that because they were not objective. But the 2009 elections has seen people voting for a candidate because they are convinced that he/she can deliver. Finally, I want to congratulate Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika for winning with a landslide in a FREE and FAIR election conducted on 19th May 2009. I would also like to commend leaders of the opposition parties who include the former president, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, the indipendent president James Nyondo,Aford president, Republican party president and Kamuzu Chibambo for coceiding defeat. Malawi has taught Africa that elections are competition. At the end of the day, we belong to the same country. we therefore need to work together after the elections to develop our country together. I thank God for helping our your democracy to show maturity. Long live Malawi and Long Live Democracy!!!!!
YOU THINK YOU HAVE FOUND A GOOD THINK THROUGH CHEATING, RECEIVE MY SYMPATHY MY GOOD FRIENDS.... BECAUSE DEMOCRACY THAT U WANTED WILL SLIP AWAY SOON,,IF THEY CAN SYSTEMATICALLY CHEAT LIKE THIS,, THINK ABOUT STATE RESOURCES
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