By Jordan Simeon-Phiri, MEC Stringer
UTM aspiring Member of Parliament for Karonga Central Constituency, Frank Mwenefumbo says Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has no powers to call off Karonga Central By-elections.
Mwenefumbo made the remarks barely days after MEC Chairperson; Justice Dr. Chifundo Kachale threatened to call off the by-elections which is slated for November 10 citing electoral Violence as the reason.
Mwenefumbo said democratically, it is provocative, irresponsible and imprudent for ‘someone’ to stop a by-election after a vigorous protracted expensive 90 days’ campaign just because of one isolated case that arose due to what he said was a provocative situation.
“Since we launched our campaign in September, we have tried our best to dwell on issue based campaign.
If anything it is us who have seen the worst in terms of violence. Our supporters have been beaten and assaulted. We have been reporting to police but no arrest has been made to date.
“Therefore, it is not necessary for someone to stop an election with four days to go after a three months campaign based on one incident that erupted after a provocative situation.
That is very irresponsible and I am not afraid to say this because I am a democrat, this is free speech. Let them come on the ground and see if there’s violence that warrants a cancellation of an election. This was causing panic amongst electorates and we don’t want that,” said Mwenefumbo
In a separate interview, MEC’s Director of Media and Public Relations, Sangwani Mwafulirwa called upon all candidates and political parties in Karonga central to practice issued by Campaign.
