KATSONGA CHALLENGES MEC

Presidential torchbearer for Chapani Cha Pfuko , Davis Chester Katsonga has said if Malawi Electoral Commission will not rectify anomalies in the law that governs what to say during campaign, the body should forget the call of clean campaign period.

Katsonga told a local radio station on Wednesday.

“There is law that says you cannot take anybody to court if they say a lie about a fellow candidate  during that particular period. We think that this does not  help the nation to have clean campaign because, you know that you can say anything about anybody during this period and they can do nothing about it.

“How can the Malawi Electoral Commission expect the campaign to be clean while the provision in the law provides for people to say anything they want to say without being accountable? I think this is an anomaly that needs to be reviewed in future. It’s a bit late now”, he said.

In his reaction, MEC commissioner Reverend Emanuel Chikwita-Phiri faulted  Katsonga saying the electoral body has developed code of conduct for all the political  parties to follow during the and after election period.

“We have come up with a subsidiary legislation  which is inform of code of conducts that political parties and all candidates sign up to regulate the conduct of the election . And the  code of conduct are clear on what should be done or what can be done and it’s enforceable”, said Phiri.

Katsonga’s remarks come amid call by MEC to have clean and issue -based campaign a head of the elections.