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POLITICS: Malawians Demand Local Councils

Claire Ngozo

LILONGWE, Nov 17 2009 (IPS) - In Malawi, local government elections are as rare and endangered as the country’s black rhinoceros.

In fact, it seems as if the local government elections are even more endangered than the wild animal – because at least the black rhinoceroses are slowly being re-introduced into Malawi. But for now, there seems to be little hope in sight for local government elections being re-introduced on a regular basis.

This comes after the country’s Electoral Commission (EC) says it has not planned any activities in readiness for local government elections, because the government has not provided the resources.

Since the multiparty dispensation in 1994, the country has held local government elections only once, in 2000. Elections were not held, as they should have been in 1995. And the local government elections failed to take place in 2005, when the mandate of the councillors elected in 2000 expired. Since then the people of Malawi have been living without representatives at local government level.

And this has prompted the Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN), an umbrella body of 100 civil society groups interested in the country’s electoral system, to institute legal action against the Malawi government for its failure to administer elections.

“The people and democracy are losers here. Decentralisation, transparency, participation of people in local development will continue to suffer because there are no legitimate representatives to ensure that things are in place,” said MESN chairperson Aloisious Nthenda.

The Malawi Constitution stipulates that under Section 147, local government elections shall take place in the third week of May, in the year following that of the national general election. Ideally Malawi needed to have the first elections in 1995 soon after the multiparty dispensation but this did not happen.

The country held its general elections in May this year, and local elections are due in May, 2010. But there is no election calendar yet in place. MESN is accusing government of violating the constitutional requirements.

Nthenda said the by-laws were not being enforced, and corruption was rampant in local assemblies, because there were no legally elected representatives to ensure that resources for local development went towards intended purposes.

MESN is not the only grouping that feels short-changed by the failure to hold local elections; villagers from Mabuka-Mulanje, a district in southern Malawi, have threatened to march in protest against the government’s failure to facilitate elections. Protest marches are rare in this peaceful African country.

Grace Katoni, a community member in Mabuka, worries that poverty is being exacerbated because there are no representatives in the government hierarchy to push for development at grassroots level.

Up to 60 percent of Malawi’s 13.1 million population live below the poverty line of one dollar per day according to the United Nations. In Malawi, one dollar is only enough to buy a loaf of bread but most households perceive bread as a luxury. Most would rather use the dollar to buy a small packet of maize flour and a handful of beans or vegetables enough for one meal.

“As local people we are failing to participate in the development of our area, as we do not have any local representatives. Members of Parliament rarely consult us on what development projects we need,” said Katoni.

She explained that people from one side of the village had difficulty getting to the clinic closest to them, especially in the rainy season, as they had to cross river that did not have a bridge, and it was sometimes impassable. She said some had died because they could not get to the clinic after falling ill.

“There are no local authorities to facilitate that a bridge be constructed over this river. We are planning a protest march to force government to carry out the elections,” said Katoni.

MESN is demanding a calendar for the elections to be released by mid-November, if the electoral process has to move. “We have already consulted lawyers on suing government over its failure to hold the local elections,” said Nthenda.

But the release of the calendar does not seem likely any time soon. Minister of local government Goodall Gondwe said at a press briefing the elections would not take place in May as expected, but probably at the end of 2010.

“Government is consulting on the election. Perhaps this coming May could be too soon to hold this election,” said Gondwe. The government was consulting a cross-section of society on the best ways in which councillors could perform.

“These consultations will inform government in preparing a policy document that will guide the local assemblies,” said Gondwe. The government had already in the national Budget allocated 15 million dollars for the elections.

“This allocation shows that government is committed to holding the local elections.”

By not holding the elections since 2005, and showing no interest in carrying out the elections now, the government of Malawi is creating a bad record of governance, according to the Malawi Law Society, which represents and assists the legal profession, and works for legal protection of the public.

Law Society spokesperson Mercy Mulele said earlier this month: “Since it is in the Constitution, government should ensure that it holds the local elections.” She has since pledged that the law society will continue lobbying.

Meanwhile the EC, a constitutional body mandated to conduct free, fair, cost-effective and regular elections, as required by the Constitution, has indicated it has not planned any activities in readiness for local government elections, because the government has not provided the resources.

EC spokesman Fegus Lipenga said no calendar meant the elections could not be held seven months from now. “We cannot commit ourselves to the May dates because there is no calendar.”