The Winner Needs to Hit the Ground Running, Everything Needs Fixing in Malawi

By Jimmy Kainja[1]

The obvious take on the first day of vote counting is that of shock and disbelief by most Malawians. Unofficial poll results strongly indicate that most commentators, analysts and journalists got their predictions wrong. This underlines the importance of polls rather than predicting electoral outcomes based on past experiences, perceptions, personal prejudices and political party attendances. It is time Malawi, especially the media start commissioning polls. This is part and parcel of electoral process.

Malawi media this time wasted their precious time debating legitimacy of various polls, which flooded social media and filled precious editorial pages even though some journalists openly questioned legitimacy of these polls. ‘Bogus’ polls would have no space in the mainstream media if the media commissioned their own. By the time of writing, unofficial results looked more like vindicating Afrobarometer’s poll. Reality may yet be different by the time official elections results are announced, but their poll is the closest yet. Continue reading

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP MUST MEET PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS

By Jimmy Kainja[1]

20th May has been and Malawians have voted, amid reports of some irregularities and insufficient voting materials, which has caused panic, commotion and tension in at least 21 polling stations, mostly in the commercial of Blantyre. These are worrying developments especially considering that the electoral body had ample time to prepare for the occasion.

It is even more worrying when you consider that these polls have been projected to be the most tightly contested elections in Malawi. This means that the winner is most likely to win with a small margin. It is easy for losers to reject electoral results when the winning margin is narrow than when there is a landslide. These elections needed to be handled with extra caution. Continue reading

POST-ELECTION STATEMENT

MEIC logo.

MEIC logo.

Statement for Immediate Release

Malawi 2014 Tripartite Elections

Post-Election Statement

May 21, 2014

 The Malawi Election Information Centre (MEIC) under the banner of the Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN) would like to highlight a number of observations noted as we continue to observe the on-going voting process. The following observations cover the period since the last briefing at 10:30 hours yesterday morning.

From the onset, we would like to state that a total of 4450 observers were trained and deployed in all the districts across the country to observe the voting process.  In addition, we also trained 25 data officers to capture reports from observers. Continue reading

STATEMENT ON FIRST PHASE OF VOTING

MEIC logo.

MEIC logo.

Statement for Immediate Release

Malawi 2014 tripartite elections

Statement on First Phase of Voting

May 20, 2014

The Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN) under the banner of the Malawi Election Information Centre (MEIC) would like to highlight a number of observations and concerns noted as polling opened today.

Opening Time

As MESN and indeed the entire taskforce on the Malawi Information Centre (MEIC), we would like to express our concern on the wide spread late opening of polling centres across the country. We note that most polling stations opened as late as 9 am instead of 6 am – and centres such as Mtantha in Mzimba had not opened by 9:30 with most complaints being registered in the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe. Continue reading

Preliminary Pre-elections Situation Analysis Report

MEIC logo.

MEIC logo.

Malawi 2014 tripartite elections

Preliminary Pre elections Situation Analysis Report

The political context of 2014 tripartite elections – The 2014 tripartite elections in Malawi, which are the fifth multiparty elections and the first tripartite elections are taking place at a time when Malawi clocks 50 years of independence and 20 years of multiparty democracy.  Whilst the journey of the last two decades has been a political roller coaster ride, the period between 2009 -2011  had been particularly tenuous. The death of President Mutharika in April 2012 and the succession of Joyce Banda surviving a coup attempt by the senior Cabinet members of Mutharika government gave a ray of hope for democracy and constitutionalism. Things did start to change for the better under the Joyce Banda administration , however, in the later part of 2013  the exposure of blatant fraud and massive financial embezzlement of tax coffers by senior government officials at Capital Hill, commonly called the ‘Cashgate’ demonstrated the entrenched corruption and weak mechanisms to deal with it.  At the regional level the elections are taking place during Malawi’s chair of SADC and elections having been held in South Africa and to be held in Botswana and Mozambique.  A credible election in Malawi will no doubt have a positive influence on elections in the sub-region and the continent.  Continue reading

Pre-election Situational Statement

MEIC logo.

MEIC logo.

 Statement for Immediate Release

Malawi 2014 tripartite elections

Pre elections situation

May 19, 2014

The Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN) under the banner of the Malawi Election Information Centre (MEIC) would like to highlight a number of pertinent issues that could potentially have both negative and positive impact on the upcoming Elections.

On the positive side, MESN would like to commend MEC for improving the flow of information and timely reporting and consultations with key stakeholders. We believe that the constant flow of information from MEC has helped reduce the level of bias on the part of the election management body.

Another notable development is the presidential debates. The debates have provided candidates the opportunity to dialogue with the voters and to turn the campaign into an issue-based one. As MESN we believe in issue based elections and we will support the sustainability of this initiative to ensure that Malawians vote for candidates based on issues and policies and not otherwise as has been the trend in the past. Continue reading

SECOND MEDIA MONITORING REPORT

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 SECOND MEDIA MONITORING REPORT (2ND TO 22 APRIL 2014)

OF THE 2014 MALAWI TRIPARTITE ELECTIONS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This is the second media report of the IWPR/USAID/DFID Media Monitoring Project. It covers the period 2nd -22nd April 2014. This report includes outputs of thirteen radio stations (including the two state radio stations), two television stations, two newspaper groups, seven news websites, five Facebook groups and Twitter. In total 4,371news items were collected and analysed from the various media.

The issues under investigation and methodology remain the same.

2.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2.1 Radio

13 radio stations were monitored during this period: MBC 1 & 2, Power 101, Capital FM, Galaxy, Joy, MIJ, Matindi, Islam, Zodiak, Star, Ufulu and Maria. 1783 news items were collected and analysed.

Coverage of Tripartite Elections
Coverage patterns are similar to those noted in the 1st Media Monitoring Report (22nd March-2nd April). Local Government elections continued to receive the least coverage. Figure 1 below illustrates differences on the coverage of the Tripartite elections.

For more details CLICK HERE.

FIRST MEDIA MONITORING REPORT.

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FIRST MEDIA MONITORING REPORT (22 MARCH TO 2ND April 2014) OF THE 2014 MALAWI TRIPARTITE ELECTIONS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This is the first media report of the IWPR/USAID/DFID Media Monitoring Project. It covers the period 22nd March to 2nd April 2014. It should be noted that this period did not include the output of state radio and television following the undertakings they gave to the Malawi Election Commission on 4 April 2014 that their election campaign coverage would be more even-handed than it had been in the campaign to date.

The project monitored the print, electronic and social media. It is worth noting that the latter are a first in media monitoring history (as far as is known). This report highlights the emerging issues from the media monitored for balance between Presidential, Parliamentary, Local Government elections and which party was mentioned, voice – that is, which politicians or spokespeople were quoted or heard directly in print or web or on air, which issues, excluding those devoted only to party or politician matters were covered and the extent to which news items were perceived as broadly neutral or broadly pro or anti in tone with regard to a specific party or parties. The project focused on news coverage on radio, television, newspapers and social media. We focused on news not just on the grounds of limited resources but also because research from around the world indicates that news has higher audiences and greater credibility than other aspects of media outputs.

For more details CLICK HERE.

WE NOW WELCOME MALAWIANS TO CITIZEN JOURNALISM

 

Citizen sends a message reporting on upcoming elections.

Citizen sends a message reporting on upcoming elections.

MALAWI Election Information Center (MEIC) is now getting ready to launch the Citizen Journalism as a way of offering all Malawians the opportunity to voice out their views on all that concerns the elections. The idea is that they will go as far as reporting on any events they deem important on ensuring a free, fair and credible elections come May 20th, 2014.

MEIC introduced the mobile and web verification to the nation as a way of making it convenient for all those registered voters who never managed to get to the polling station on time to register. Mobile verification was simple in the sense that people just sent their ID numbers to 5VOTE (58683) and they got feedback on whether they were verified or not. This system will finally end on Thursday, 15th May, 2014. Continue reading

AN END TO THE DEBATES

FOR the first time in the country, Malawi held three Presidential Debates where Malawians got a chance to hear first-hand what presidential candidates had to say when presented with questions regarding their ideas and policies.

MISA Chairperson Anthony Kasunda giving a speech.

MISA Chairperson Anthony Kasunda giving a speech.

This added to the fact that the elections will be the first tripartite elections where Malawians will be able to vote for Presidential candidates, Parliamentary and local councillors. The Chairperson of Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Anthony Kasunda “The May 2014 elections are particularly unique, as they come at a time of years of Independence” Continue reading