election could only be challenged if the complaint were registered within 48 hours after the declaration of results. This time limit was considered by political parties and election observers
464
to be too restricting as it was not possible within 48 hours to gather the evidence and lodge a formal complaint. This law was, however, amended in July 2013 so that starting with the 2014 elections, the period for complaints will be seven days465 especially for presidential results because the President is sworn in very quickly before complaints related to his election are resolved.
The Electoral Commission is by law required to produce various reports on various matters and the reports are made public. For example, reports on constituency and ward (re)demarcations are filed with Parliament under section 76(5)(b) of the constitution. Financial reports of the Commission are required by section 16 of the Electoral Commission Act and are made public by publishing in the Gazette and presented to parliament by the Minister in accordance with the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act and Public Finance Audit Act. Furthermore, the provisions under this section require the commission to keep books of accounts, avail them for auditing by the Auditor General or by independent professional auditors.
For all electoral irregularities, political parties and candidates are afforded legal rights to seek redress. Sections 113 and 114 of the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Act and sections 96 and 97 of the Local Government Elections Act provide for complaints and appeals by candidates and political parties with respect to any irregularity in the electoral process.
6.2.4.
A c c o u nt ab il it y ( Pr a ct ic e )
Score: 75
To what extent does the EMB have to report and be answerable for its actions in practice?
The Chief Elections Officer is designated as the accounting officer for the Electoral Commission and appears before Parliamentary Committees and other relevant authorities to account for the work and activities of the secretariat. 466 The MEC files all the reports required by law even though sometimes submission is delayed.467 However, Parliament lacks sufficient time to properly consider
464
EISA (2009) Malawi: Election Observation Report for the 2009 General Elections (Johannesburg: EISA).
465
Chingaipe, Henry and Joseph Thombozi (2013) Evaluation Report of the MESN-OSISA Project on Electoral Reforms for the 2014 Tripartite Elections (Blantyre: MESN).
466
Electoral Commission Act
467
Interview with MEC senior Management Officer.
2013
119
VII. The National Integrity System 6. Electoral Management Boxy
concerns with the timeframes required by law. For example, a decision on the results of the