On May 20th (6 days ago) Malawi began casting their vote in their presidential elections. The threat of unrest, riots, ballot tampering, rigging, etc. is always a concern here. As our previous blog post stated we stocked up on food and supplies just in case we couldn't go into the cities once the results were released.
The results have yet to be released. And it's now looking like there will be many more days/weeks to wait anxiously. For an unbiased synopsis of what happened just yesterday here in Malawi I copied a post from a pastor friend here who is a Malawian.
24 hours ago, the Malawi Electoral Commission finally started releasing interim official results, much to everyone's relief. In his opening remarks before the release of the first results, Maxon Mbendera informed a captivated nation that out of the 4445 polling centers at which people cast their votes around the country, the commission was ready to release results from 1333 centers, representing 30% of the votes counted by the commission and entered into their system. Justice Mbendera was at pains to point out that these results were only preliminary and were in no way an indication of who was going to emerge the winner. This is because most of the votes counted so far were from districts in the less populated northern region of Malawi, making it inevitable that those results were not necessarily representative of the final outcome. As such, those whose party would come out in the lead were warned to refrain from premature celebrations.
More alarming was Maxon Mbendera's revelation that results from 19 polling centers were being put on hold for further review because the number of votes recorded at those centers exceeded the number of voters who registered to vote at those centers. It was both a painful reminder of the irregularities that this election has been fraught with and a reassuring reminder of the transparency and thoroughness with which the commission is determined to rectify these anomalies. When the interim results were finally announced, the figures from the first 30% of the polling centers put Peter Mutharika in the lead, followed by Joyce Banda and Lazarus Chakwera in second and third position respectively. In retrospect, it felt as though the emotional rollercoster we have just been subjected to by the media's unofficial results in the last three days was now about to be experienced all over again by MEC's official results over the next few days until every true vote is counted, every false vote discounted, and every dispute resolved before a winner is officially named. It was obvious that this was not going to take hours, but days.
THE DAWN BRINGS LIGHT
At sunrise, all the local papers this morning were dominated by news about the election. It is all we think about, talk about, pray about, and dream about. This has been one of the most unproductive weeks in the history of Malawi's democracy. Many are not going to work, and those who are can hardly getting any work done when they get there. In this regard, the air of uncertainty, anxiety, and anger that have been triggered by this electoral process have in turn brought to light a perfect storm of the worst elements of Malawian society: delays in delivering services, spreading unfounded rumors, jealousy of others' success, flaunting one's own success to gloat, absconding from work, suspecting others of cheating, and gullibly believing misleading information. Most worryingly, this time of uncertainty has brought to light the most disconcerting characteristics of the incumbent president, Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda.
In an alarming example of abuse of office, she called a press conference at noon to day to issue a presidential executive order calling for Malawi Electoral Commission to stop the electoral process with immediate effect, including the on going vote count and eventual announcement of results, and instead to hold fresh elections in 90 days in which she would not stand as a presidential candidate. In her statement, she evoked Section 82 (2) of the Malawi Constitution, even though no such section exists in the constitution. When this error was brought to her attention after the press conference, she immediately went on air to correct her earlier claim, this time saying that she meant to invoke Section 88 (2), which curiously still does not give the president the power to nullify an ongoing electoral process or call for a fresh election, since that would contradict Section 76 (4) which stipulates that "The electoral commission shall exercise its powers, functions, and duties...independent of any direction or interference by other authority or any person". In essence, the president's executive order was not only ill-timed and ill-advised, but also illegal, and the Malawi Electoral Commission and the Malawi Law Society wasted no time to secure injunctions from the High Court to stop the order from being carried out. It was clearly a lapse in judgment by a president who is feeling less and less in control and more and more in isolation, which is the worst possible time to be making decisions for everyone. The decision triggered riots in parts of Lilongwe and Blantyre, and it is fortunate that the damage was soon contained.
CAN'T MEC THE TRUTH GO AWAY
Notwithstanding, the president has been right about one thing for which she has been unjustly ridiculed: the electoral process has been so severely compromised that even though fresh elections are not yet necessary, a total recount of the votes across the country is. Throughout the day, the MEC continued to discover result sheets from multiple polling centers showing votes that were significantly higher than the voters registered. It was a moment of truth for the commission, who have been insisting for months that their system is impervious to rigging. They had a change of mind and called for an emergency meeting with representatives of all the parties. By the end of that meeting, it was agreed that the result sheets could not be trusted, and the only way to know the will of the people in this election is to gather all the ballot boxes from all the polling centers and conduct a physical audit and recount of all the votes cast for president, parliamentarians, and counselors.
As the commission announced the recount tonight, there were cheers and jubilations from those inside the tallying center who have been crying foul ever since the counting started. The cheerers did not even seem to mind that the commissioners said that the recount would take anywhere between a week and one month. All that they want is justice, and it is a relief that all parties are now agreed that justice was thus far not being done, because the figures coming from many centers were clearly inflated both beyond reason and beyond the numbers of registered voters. If this is so, it means that everyone who has been posting inflated vote figures on Facebook, and every broadcaster that has been announcing inflated vote figures have been either deliberately or inadvertently posting doctored figures designed to sway the presidency towards a particular candidate who was likely not elected by Malawians. It also discredits the professionalism and integrity of Zodiak Broadcasting Station, Malawi Broadcasting Station, and the Malawi Electoral Support Network for publicizing and backing bogus figures without doing their due diligence. Only they can say whether they did it knowingly or ignorantly.
WHO DONE IT?
Such a massive cooking up of numbers could not have happened without an astronomical expense of money to bribe electoral officers at polling centers, police officers in charge of security, and IT specialists in charge of result transmission. You can use your own deductive powers to narrow down the list of parties who have enough money, means, and motive to corrupt the entire electoral system. If you still can't figure it out, they will most likely be the ones who are not celebrating the recount or who may very well protest it, for justice is a terror to the wicked and transparency a dread to those who love darkness. In fact, the recount will probably result in people who have already celebrated their lead in the presidency losing that lead and those who have already celebrated their seat in parliament finding themselves losers. Those who thought they were first will be last and those who thought they were last will be first, for it is what the Lord Jesus said would happen in the end, and by his mercy the rottenness in Malawian politics is being exposed and purged. In fact, what was first thought to be the worst election ever may very well be the best of the lot. So even though we must go on waiting for the final result, justice is worth waiting for, and in Maxon Mbendera we have a Justice who is determined to deliver it. Let's pray he does, no matter how long it takes, because although the devil is a liar, he can't lie to everyone, and he certainly won't lie forever. Shalom.
Malawians want to be assured that the elections are fair and honest. They demand the truth. Unfortunately news organizations have been giving "unofficial" results that the general public sees as truth. They are confused and tired of waiting. Anxiety among the general population is growing. Please pray for peace and stability. Pray for the election process and for truth. Pray that God will give this country a leader who is fair, honest, and ready to bring forth change for the good. Ultimately may all things glorify God and point to Christ!
