Development partners support MEC to review FPE

With support from Development Partners under the UNDP-managed basket fund, the Malawi Electoral Commission has embarked on a post-mortem exercise to review the 2020 Fresh Presidential Elections through a series of meetings with stakeholders.

Speaking on Thursday when he opened a review meeting in Lilongwe, MEC Chairman, Justice Dr ChifundoKachalethanked the development partners for their support towards MEC which has enabled the Commission to conduct the review meetings.

Apart from UNDP, the basket fund is contributed to by the European Union (EU), Department for International Development (DfID), Irish Aid and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

So far the Commission has conducted internal review meetings for the Fresh Presidential Elections that involved the Commission and secretariat staff.

The external meetings involved members of the Multiparty Liaison Committees, civil society organisations, traditional leaders and other stakeholders at council level.

During the meetings, stakeholders were given an opportunity to outline the activities that went on well, the challenges that were faced and how the issues can be improved for future elections. The deliberations covered all aspects of election management including logistics, voter education, campaign, polling, results counting and transmission and announcement among others.

In his remarks, Justice Dr Kachalethanked all the stakeholdersfor the wonderful job they did in the preparation and management of the 2020 Fresh Presidential Election in the councils.

“It is because of collective efforts that the poll was described as credible by all electoral stakeholders. The Commission on its own cannot deliver a credible election,” he said.

The MEC chairman said the meeting offered an opportunity for self-reflection and assessment in order to improve future elections.

“I believe no matter how well-managed elections are, there will always be room for improvement. Today, I challenge you to search for that thing, issue or ideathat can be used to improve future elections.

“If we do not reflect on best practices and challenges, we are bound to repeat past mistakes if any existed, and also fail to seize the opportunity of perfecting our processes by optimising and replicating best practices,” he said.