The Malawi Electoral Commission, (MEC) has sought collaboration of the Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on the need to share insights and experience on management of election matters.
Speaking at the occasion, leader of the delegation and chairman Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), Justice Chifundo Kachale, said there was a lot of commonality in what their commission and INEC do as far as election management is concerned.
He noted that the delimitation of constituencies and wards are some of the distinguishing features of the plurality system whereby representatives are chosen from discreet electoral constituencies with districts.
He said that of particular importance why he visited Nigeria was to learn how INEC has been able to manage its voter distribution, ethnicity, and legitimacy of the proportion of voters it requires to constitute a valid constituency.
He said: “Just like in Nigeria, the issue of delimitation of the district is quite a sensitive issue. In our context, the last time we were able to do this successfully was in 1998. A similar attempt in 2004 was thwarted because of the political sensitivity of the process. Part of the challenges was that the activity was being conducted too close to the poll. And you know the sensitivity that arises. And that is why this time around, we are trying to do this because our next general election has been scheduled for 2025.
“So we as a commission are mandated to undertake this process. We have been delayed in our calendar implementing this because of the COVID-19 pandemic as you are aware.
“And in our concept, we share with the commission and outlined some of the thoughts that have gone into identifying where we should go and learn. One of the issues we would love to learn from Nigeria as a commission is an issue of managing the voter distribution, ethnicity, legitimacy of the proportion of voters that you require to constitute a valid constituency.’’
