Malawi 'Election Democracy' in Presidential Election Re-run

Thousands of supporters attend rallies ahead of  the fresh polls

Since Kenyan Judiciary nullified 2017 presidential elections, African countries took it as an example of electoral democracy and since then, it has been a model to be emulated by most countries. When Malawi considered their May 2019 elections unfair and unjust, they knew it was possible for their judiciary to nullify their elections and thus went to the court to challenge the results. Later in 2020, presidential elections were made to be repeated, becoming the second African country to do so after Kenya in 2017. However, Malawi did something different from Kenya;

What made the elections different?

Small number of presidential candidates. Usually, there are close to ten candidates who contest during an election in Malawi. In the May 2019 election, there were nine candidates on the ballot paper but this time, the list narrowed to only three candidates. This followed the requirement that the June 2020 candidates should be among the May, 2019 contestants, and thus no new contestants joined in the race. Moreover, parties were compelled by the 50+1 vote system to form alliances in quest to garner more votes making candidates rally behind the other.

Party alliances. To become a president in Malawi, a candidate is expected to get the majority of the votes. Previously, the term “majority” meant that the winning candidate would have a larger number of votes than other candidates. During the May, 2019 election, the declared winner got 38.57% and was thus declared the winning president. However, during the election court proceedings, the Constitutional Court interpreted the term “majority” to mean 50+1, that is to say, to win, a candidate must get more than 50% of the votes. Considering the numbers of followers each political party had, no party could amass such a number of votes if it participated alone. Hence, party alliances were born; the two main opposition parties (MCP and UTM) joined forces with other seven parties, forming an alliance of nine political parties, rewriting the history of Malawian political parties.

The absence of international observers. There was no presence of international observers during June 23^rd, 2020 election. When asked during a press briefing, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), indicated that they had sent invitations to the concerned observers, including the SADC, the AU, and the EU which claims not to have been invited. However, the observers said, several times, that they would not attend. The failure to attend might have also been orchestrated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has rendered cross-border movements impossible.

Malawians vote again amidst Covid-19

Nevertheless, the election went on well without the observers and some concerned Africans are thus questioning the necessity of the international observers in African elections. The concern is also inspired by the fact that during the May, 2019 elections, all the international observers declared the election as free, fair, credible and transparent, yet the courts found that the same election were marred by serious irregularities. However according to Thabo Mbeki, the Commonwealth representative observer, it was early to declare the May 2019 elections fair.

Physical submission of vote results. Previously, vote results from constituencies and districts were submitted to the main tally centre through an online channel. However, this mode of result submission raised eye brows among Malawians since the online channel were believed to be hacked to tamper with the figures. Differently, this time, results from the districts were submitted by the District Commissioners (DC) manually to the main tally center in Blantyre under the escort of the Malawi army for security reasons.

Fair and just elections amidst Covid-19:

All parties were free to campaign. In March, 2020 the president announced a ban on public gatherings. Nevertheless, when the MEC launched a political campaign period, all political parties, including that of the president Peter Mutharika, were holding rallies around the country. It was as if political parties were spared from the ban as elections were around the corner and thus, in terms of campaign, each candidate was free to go out and meet their followers. However, those party followers who could not go out, due to quarantine reasons or other reasons, followed the rallies through the radio and TV.

Covid-19 measures during Malawi presidecial votes

MEC put in place precautionary measures. In the run up to the election, the MEC put in place measures to control the spread of Covid-19 in the polling stations which was successfully implemented. On the voting day, buckets of water and hand washing soap were made available in each of the polling stations, and social distancing was also maintained for ques. Moreover, similar measures were also taken at the vote-counting rooms after the voting process thus the safety of the voters was assured.

Possibility of electoral democracy in Africa?

To a certain extent, yes and June 2020 Malawi election stands to be a model as of today. The fact that there was no any international observer during this election shows that African States have the capacity to stand alone in making major political decisions in Africa. Besides, as far as my source is concerned, no foreign government offered financial aid for the June 2020 Malawi election. In addition, with the pandemic feeding on global economies, even the developed countries are busy injecting their money into their affected sectors and thus African issues may be of less interest to inject cash in. The government of Malawi was thus left to take care of their own elections in terms of finance making the country the driver of the electoral process. In the end, the election has been described by local observers; Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and churches as fair and peaceful. Therefore, if the culture observed in Malawi re-elections could be repeated again in different African States, Africans would be in a position to claim“pure electoral democracy”.

Usually, in Africa, things go wrong when, the task of conducting an election solely depends on funds from foreign governments. Doesn’t any mother feed her child expecting positive returns in health and weight of the child? As well, donor funds come with conditions attached. How can African Nations avoid fulfilling the West interests when we feed them the power to decide just, fair, and credible elections as well as fund our general elections?

Congratulations to Lazurus Chakwera, the current president of Malawi.

NB: I do not own the right to the photos used in this blog