No electoral calendar, no civic education—Pacenet

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Despite the Electoral Commission (EC) accrediting 65 non-governmental organizations to undertake the task of civic educating the masses on local polls, the civil society says civic education can only roll out after the electoral body releases the calendar of events.

In the press statement made available to The Daily Times, Pan African Civic Education Network (Pacenet) says since EC has not released the electoral calendar, it could be counterproductive for the NGOs to start educating voters on the polls.

Pacenet executive director Steve Duwa argues that in the absence of such information, it could difficult for the accredited NGOs to design messages and that donors would not easily fund them without a clear calendar of events.

“There is no electoral calendar at the moment and nobody knows…apart from MEC itself, when the local polls will take place. For which election are people to be prepared?” asks Duwa.

He also states that the NGOs would find it hard to source funding for the voter and civic education because an electoral calendar acts as a backing to their project proposals [to their donors].

“Our experience in elections and donors in Malawi is that no donor can release funds for electoral activities in the absence of an electoral calendar including the actual polling date.

“Currently, there are no structured messages from EC on these elections, which should also form part of the messages accredited NGOs are to give out to the public,” Duwa explains.

In an interview yesterday, EC spokesperson Richard Mveriwa could neither fault the civil society for their decision on voter and civic education nor provide the date when the calendar will be made available to the accredited NGOs.

But Mveriwa explained that EC will have to consult the president on when to release the calendar.

“We are currently busy working on the calendar and soon our stakeholders [donors and political parties] will have a chance to see it before release,” he said.

Earlier, EC had set November 23 this year as a date when local polls would be held. But the polls were postponed to an indefinite date without explanations.

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