Following several court rulings that questioned the commission’s credibility, and protests for a change in management, the chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), Jane Ansah, has handed in her resignation as head of the electoral body just a month before Malawians are set to vote in a fresh presidential election. The second, in less than 2 years.
Announcing her resignation in a broadcast on state television, the embattled commission head who has been the subject of several protests organized by human rights campaigners who accused her of mismanaging last year’s elections, said, “I have written the appointing authority [the president] that I have decided to step down.”
Ansah, however, denied that her decision was in response to the ongoing protests, reiterating that she had done nothing wrong, but was simply following the rule of law. “In fact, I don’t regret it. I did the best. I have worked very well, truthfully with clean hands and that’s it. I live full of confidence,” she said.
The drama started when the Constitutional Court overturned the results of last year’s elections, which saw President Peter Mutharika return to power for a second term. The case was however pursued up to the Supreme Court, which upheld the previous ruling, citing incompetence on the part of Ansah and her commission due to massive irregularities and the use of correction fluid on some papers.
Opposition Parties React to the News
The Nyasa Times, however, reports that most of the country’s opposition parties are unmoved by Ansah’s decision to step down from leading Malawi’s electoral umpire.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) secretary-general Eisenhower Mkaka said the party is not at all excited with the resignation, calling for a restructuring of the commission as a whole. “We are not excited about the resignation. We know that the elections were managed by the whole commission not one person. The whole commission must go,” he said.
“The Supreme Court ruling was done long ago, why didn’t she resign that time? We have several question marks,” said Joseph Chidanti Malunga, a publicist with the United Transformation Party (UTM), who questioned the timing of Ansah’s resignation.
The court in Malawi ordered that a fresh election be held within 150 days of its February 3 ruling. The electoral commission had initially set July 2, which was day 149 since the ruling, but has since brought the date forward to June 23.
