MCP, UTM ACCUSE MEC OF HOSTING SADC SUMMIT

Political parties that are challenging the May 21 presidential poll results in court, have accused the Malawi Electoral Commission(MEC) of being insensitive for accepting to host a SADC conference of electoral commissions when the issues have not been resolved.

MEC has announced that it will hold the summit from 22 to 27 September in Blantyre where delegates from 16 countries are expected to attend.

However the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Transformation Movement (UTM) which drag the MEC to court and are pushing for the nullification of the presidential results argued that MEC should have accused itself from hosting the summit.

MCP spokesperson Maurice Munthali has said MEC is not supposed to host the SADC meeting now considering the current situation in the country.

“It only shows that the MEC is very insensitive, they cannot even know what is happening in this country and why Malawians are angry. This is insensitivity and it shows that they are ready to run their affairs at the expanse of the people’s lives.

UTM spokesperson Chidanti Malunga has also condemned Mec to host the meeting.

“The majority of people in Malawi question the credibility of the MEC. The best they could have done is to stay away from any public appearance until the court case is over but otherwise if they continue doing this it will just rekindle the pain that people have.

However MEC insists that it sees nothing wrong with hosting such a conference as the issues that are in court are yet to be determined.

Jane Ansah and MEC have been under intense scrutiny since the May 21 polls for allegedly mismanaging the polls.

Protests organized by Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) have been held in the country to force her out of the office.