ELECTORAL AND VOTING REFORMS
of the LGEA places the duty to do so on the Commission. To clarify the conflicting provisions, it is proposed to empower the Electoral Commission only to promulgate subsidiary legislation.
Voter eligibility: Section 77 (1) of the Constitution provides for eligibility for registration to all persons who are citizens or are resident in the country for at least seven years; have attained age 18; and are born in the country. This partly contradicts sections 15 and 6 of the PPEA and LGEA which state that every citizen of Malawi, those residing in Malawi and who, on or before the polling day, shall have attained the age of eighteen years shall be eligible to register as a voter in an election. The proposed reform entails amending S77 of the Constitution to allow voting age to be determined on the date of polling and not on registration in order to comply with international best practices.
Candidates eligibility: A candidate is required to get a number of signatures of registered voters that endorse the candidature of an interested person. The main observation is that the current required number (i.e. ten signatures) is rather too low and contributes to the increasing number of candidates and scales up the cost of elections. It is intended to increase the number of required signatures to one thousand for presidential candidates per constituency, two hundred and fifty signatures for MPs and fifty for councillors. Campaign: Electoral laws also regulate the conduct of campaigns for parliamentary, presidential and local government elections by candidates and political parties. Though a section of the PPEA calls for fair coverage of all political parties by the National Public Broadcaster, in practice the ruling party dominates both radio and television coverage.
The intended reform is for an amendment to section 63 of the PPEA and for a new Communications Bill (2014) which will provide for the independence of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation from Executive control in terms of its reporting and the appointment of the Director General befitting a public broadcaster. Vote buying: The electoral laws say nothing on the use of hand-outs during a campaign thus creating a lacuna in terms of petitioning for undue returns. The use of hand-outs exacerbates the abuse and plunder of public resources by ruling parties and also entrenches the practices of patrimonial politics. Therefore, legislation banning political handouts in all its forms will be formulated with necessary sanctions by amending sections 66 and 115 of the PPEA. As a necessary development a new Bill, the Political Parties Bill 2015, has been presented to all
Above: The Parliament Building in Malawi.
stakeholders including the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament to replace the Political Parties (Rules and Regulations) Act. The new Bill makes it obligatory for all political parties to disclose the sources of their finances unlike under the current law where there is no such requirement. Determination of Results: In Malawi, the practice has been that votes are counted right at the polling station. Under section 95, the results from polling centres are collated and verified by the Returning Officer but unfortunately he does not have the power to declare a winner for parliamentary or local government as he has to await the national result announcement by the Electoral Commission. It is intended to reform the law to empower Returning Officers as per international practice by:
The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Three | 153
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104