decisions on specific issues in the electoral process. For Instance, in the 2009 general election, the commission allowed the incumbent President to use his first name on the presidential ballot instead of his surname as required by law. This act enabled the President’s name to come first on the ballot and there is evidence from voter behaviour studies that this gave the President an unfair competitive edge.448 Similarly, when a retired President wanted to run again in the 2009 elections based on a narrow interpretation of the constitutional provision limiting presidential terms, the Commission skilfully used the law to postpone making a decision on the matter. When it finally decided, it was too late for the affected political party to reorganise in readiness for the election. An assessment of civic and voter education of the 2009 election found that this matter was responsible for the high number of null and void votes in the eastern region of the country. 449 There was also a widespread perception that the MEC had been influenced by the ruling party in its conduct on this matter and therefore gave it competitive advantage in the electoral process. 450
Members of staff are recruited through competitive processes overseen by the Commissioners and all senior staff have a minimum of university degree. However, in the recent past during the presidential tenure of Bingu wa Mutharika, there were alleged political machinations to have a Chief Elections Officer that was a loyal tribesman of the President but this did not come to pass. 451
Nonetheless, the people of Malawi have reasonably high levels of trust in the MEC as shown by Afro-barometer data.
The 2012 Afro-barometer reports for Rounds one, two, three and four for Malawi 452 shows that the proportions of the population with a lot of trust and with no trust at all in the MEC were almost identical in 2002. Since then the proportion of people without trust has been decreasing while that with a lot of trust has been increasing. Similarly the proportions of people with a little or somewhat trust in the MEC have been increasing especially since 2005. When the data is condensed between two categories i.e. No trust and trust, it shows that in 2012 about 66 per cent of the population had trust in MEC while only 29 per cent did not trust MEC.
448
Chinsinga, Blessings (2011) ‘A Critical stock take of Malawi’s 19 May 2009 Elections: Processes, Outcomes and Challenges’, Journal of African Elections, 9(1).
449
Chingaipe and Kabondo (2013) Report on Assessment of the Implementation of the 2009 Civic and Voter Education Strategy (Blantyre: MEC).
450
Ibid.
451
During this period, appointments in the public service were generally ethinicised in favour of the President’s tribe. Stories related to the appointment of the Chief Elections Officer were awash on web based news outlets.
452
available at www.afrobarometer.org.
114
Malawi National Integrity System Analysis