Long Term Observation Report
February 2014
BACKGROUND
Malawi will be holding fifth multi-party general elections in May 2014 and these elections will be
different from the past four elections parliamentary and presidential elections because they will
be tripartite i.e. parliamentary, presidential and local government elections. There is strong
expectation that the entire electoral process will be complex for most Malawians. At the same
time it is anticipated that the electoral staff will be overwhelmed by the amount of work that they
will have to do especially during polling and vote counting. Such being the case it is anticipated
that the conduct of the entire electoral process will be a challenging undertaking by Malawi
Electoral Commission (MEC), political parties, civil society organizations, candidates, aspirants
and voters. As such it is critical to observe the entire electoral process and to this end MESN
will be observing the entire electoral process before, during and after the election. Long term
observation will act as a quality control check and improve public confidence and integrity of the
electoral processes.
LONG TERM OBSERVATION (LTO) EXERCISE
The Long Term Observation (LTO) exercise is one of the several observation efforts being used
by MESN to collect information on the conduct of the May 20 Tripartite Elections. It is the
systematic process over a period of time prior to, during and after an election to assess different
aspects of the electoral process in order to provide an independent evaluation of its fairness.
Under the LTO exercise, among other activities, information on nomination process, inspection
of interim voters register and campaign will be collected from a constituencies located across
Malawi. This process enables election MESN to make an objective assessment of the
environment under which the elections are held.
MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE LTO EXERCISE
To build capacity of credible non-partisan domestic observers and to effectively monitor the
entire electoral process for 2014 tripartite elections.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE LTO EXERCISE
1. To assess whether the conditions for a free and fair election exist ahead of 2014
Elections
2. To document all election related events prior to, during and after the 2014 elections in
order to objectively inform the citizens of Malawi and other interested stakeholders
3. To use information provided by the MESN long term observers to take relevant
intervention measures
4. To use the observations made by the long-term observer to advocate for electoral
reforms
5. To publicize all election related developments in order to minimize electoral malpractices
6. To enhance confidence in the electoral process through the highlighting and
commending of the best practices in the run up to the election
7. To identify and highlight hot spots ahead of the short- term observation of elections
8. To encourage citizen participation in the political process
1|Page
DEPLOYMENT METHODOLOGY
Deployment of our LTO observers employed the purposive approach. The purposive
sampling technique was chosen because of the program’s special interest in political hot
spots during the electoral processes of the 2014 tripartite elections in Malawi. These hot
spots are areas that we identified as having closely competing candidates or have a past
tainted with rampant violence and fraud. In some of these areas the potential for extremely
high tensions is often extremely high because of the election fever among the candidates in
the constituency which often results from controversial changes of political allegiance by
some key figures in some political parties. Thus such dynamics often provide a fertile ground
for incidents that either directly or indirectly affect the conduct of elections and determination
of the eventual winners and losers.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT-HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
Overall our assessment as per the LTO reports the electoral processes in February have
largely been held in conformity with legal framework in the country and the international
standards of conducting elections. Unfortunately, there are areas where electoral
malpractices and misconduct, like intimidation, harassment, voter buying and abuse of
public service- in which the electoral process could be improved, have been observed. This
is very unfortunate, nevertheless it serves as a wakeup call to all electoral stakeholders,
primarily MEC to strengthen its control machinery, to ensure that these ills to the electoral
process do not spiral up and graduate into wide spread and uncontrollable incidents thereby
derail the integrity and quality of the elections.
Political parties conduct
On a positive note, our observer mission established during the month of February political
parties as well as other independent candidates are geared to ensuring that the forth
coming tripartite elections are of high standards. Many key political parties ensured that
their parties embrace intra-party democracy. This was manifested by their commitment to
conduct primary elections to identity representatives in the parliamentary and local
government races. It was more pleasing to note that even women and youth were given the
platform to exercise their right to participate in these primary elections.
However, this good development was tainted by attempts to impose the-would-be torch
bearers either directly and indirectly. Most of the heavy weights that were being imposed on
the electorate were heavy weights in the party and had influence from the parties’
leadership. This was even very evident in some instances where the heavy weights lost the
contest owing to the fact that unjustified reruns were not only called for but also held though
attempts were made to challenge them. There are now several candidates who have opted
2|Page
to contest as independent candidates but formerly loyal members of some specific political
parties which is largely a consequence of lack of mature intra-party democracy in some
political parties.
Another positive element of activities at the intra-party level is that the platform was levelled
for eligible party members to participate. Different individuals including women therefore
took advantage of this opportunity to express their ambitions to contest for the
parliamentary seat on their party tickets. Several women come in open to show their
ambitions in most parts of the country in all the political parties that held intra-party
primaries. It was disheartening to see that some female candidates encountered some
opposition from some party zealots who intimidated and harassed them during their
campaigns. Much as the marginalised groups of women were given the opportunity to take
part as candidates, the outcome of the primary elections was largely not in their favour.
Most female candidates lost the elections which is an indicator that chances of achieving
50:50 representations in parliament and local government are very dismal. This dismal
performance was also established to be a consequence of lack of enough financial
resources on the part of the female candidates.
At the inter-party level, the observer team noted that there were instances of escalating
political intolerance, harassment and intimidation though on a small scale among different
political parties. Peoples Party (PP) and United Democratic Party (UDF) followers and
supporters have been identified as perpetrators of this deplorable misconduct against other
political parties like DPP and MCP. On a different note, there have been reports of voter
buying and favouritism towards party zealots in government maize distribution campaign to
those who food insecure by PP, the ruling party in a number of constituencies across the
country. Nevertheless, there were no reports of creation of no go zones. It was encouraging
to note that No political party or candidate or known authority has been observed or
reported to have set a “no go zone” area within the constituencies.
OBSERVING THE NOMINATION PROCESS
Observing the Presidential candidates nomination
This process saw 12 candidates expressing interest to contest for this presidential vote. It
was observed that all the candidates were accorded equal opportunities during the
presentation. This includes the time, the platform to make speeches as well as candidate or
party supporters to express their loyalty to their favorite candidates????
Observing the Parliamentary and Local government candidates nomination
The candidates and supporterspolitical rights and freedoms were respected and there was
enough security presence at all nomination centres at the district councils.
However, a number of candidates had challenges when filling the nomination papers. They
were sent back to make the necessary corrections. For instance, some candidates were not
3|Page
able to comprehend the language on the forms and therefore could not correct responses.
Some candidates who were not successful brought their nomination papers without the
required bank deposit slip. Others had their nomination papers rejected because they
delegated the presentation task to other people. While other candidates were rejected for
showing up late for the presentation.
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS
Presence of accredited civil society organizations

MESN reports that several accredited CSOs to conduct civic and voter education (CVE)
have their presence in almost all the constituencies. These civil society organizations
include: National Initiative for Civic Education Trust (NICE), Pan African Civic Educators
Network (PACENET), Youth Network Counselling (YONECO), Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace (CCJP), Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and Church and Society of
Blantyre CCAP Synod.

It is noted that not all the accredited CSOs have embarked on or rolled out their CVE
campaigns yet. This delay or absence may be attributed to lack of financial resources.
Despite the constraints on some CSOs to do CVE, those who have already embarked
on CVE are doing it professionally and as per the election standards. We have assessed
that the CVE is being conducted in a non-partisan manner. These CSOs use public
meetings, drama and ICT materials. On a positive note, we also noted that these CSOs
included underrepresented groups such as women and the persons with disabilities
during their public meetings.
SUMMARY OF CONSTITUENCY OBSERVATION
CONSTITUENCY
Zomba Central
CATEGORY
Political
Violence/Intolerance
Phalombe East
Political
/Intolerance
4|Page
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
PP Party supporters removed flags of
DPP, UDF and MCP because the
Head of State who is also President
of the ruling party (PP) was passing.
Then UDF DPP and MCP supporters
reacted to this action and violence
ensued. The actual scene of the
incident was
Chinamwali trading
centre.
Violence After the presentation of the
nomination papers in Phalombe,
DPP supporters and supporters of
other parties candidates intimidated
and attacked one another.
This
incident happened at the end of the
exercise as people walked back
home. The parties supporters threw
stones at each other and most of the
perpetrators were youth and the
victims
were
women.
The
Dedza West
Use of state resources
Mulanje Central
Use of State Resources
Ntchisi South
Mangochi Central
Political
Violence/Intolerance
Mulanje North
Political Intolerance
5|Page
incidentattracted the attention of the
police at Chilinga and some people
got arrested.
The ruling Peoples Party leadership
which also happens to be in
government gathered at Mchenga
School and distributed maize only to
party members and chiefs. The
maize is alleged to have belonged to
the Malawi Government. However,
there were individuals who witnessed
the incident and had given the LTO
first hand information on the same.
DPP aspiring candidate for the
constituency Mr Patrick Kantadza
who lives in Chimowa village
witnessed the area.
Use of state resources was observed
during the perion under review. A
government vehicle for Thyolo
District Council, with the registration
number MG430Z, was used at the
meetings conducted by the vice
president of PP for the south,
Honourable B. Mpinganjira on 25th
February, 2014. The rally took place
at Nthulo School ground in STA
Ngolongoliwa
MESN LTO was informed that some
party officials from the ruling party
were buying voter IDs from the
citizens at a price of MK500. The
matter was reported to police and it is
under investigation.this is still
When a UDF Candidate and his
supporters were going to hand in
nomination papers at Mangochi
District MEC office their convoy met
with one vehicle for Peoples Party
coming from Namwera with PP
supporters. Violence was reported
during this encounter The UDF
supporters picked and started to
throw stones at PP supporters,
however, nobody was injured. The
matter was reported to Mangochi
Police Station and no one was
arrested.
MESN
LTO
observed
that
HonourableNamacha of DPP has
mobilized a gang of young people
that
have been threatening
supporters of other political parties
that have candidates contesting for
the parliamentary seat. This group
also existed in 2009 during the
Parliamentary
and
Presidentifal
elections and is well known in the
constitutency.
Ntcheu West
Political
Violence/ A female aspirant Naomi Chidiwa
Intolerance
from Ntcheu West constituency who
contested in the Peoples Party
primaries and won the first round of
primary elections, was harassed by
party officials. She was later
disqualified for allegedly inciting
violence. She was harassed by party
officials and she went into hiding
fearing for her life.
Machinga
North Political Intolerance
Furthermore, there was disruption of
East
campaign
activity
when
DPP
members agreed to undertake a
political rally at Mpalangwatu School
Ground T/A Nyambi where they were
disrupted by political supporters of
UDF and PP.
Mwanza Central
Political Intolerance
Supporters of DPP Candidate have
created a “no go zones” in the
constituency This designation of NO
GO zones has seen other candidates
belonging to other political parties
being barred from conducting
meetings
in some parts of the
constituency.
Lilongwe
Political Violence
MESN LTO witnessed a political fight
Kumachengwa
between UDF party supportersand
MCP supporters. The fighting
happened
before
AtupeleMuluzi
came to the constituency for a
whistle stop tour at Njerwa. The
matter was reported to police and is
under investigation.
Phalombe East
Political Violence
Reports of violence in Lipenga
Village were made, whereby DPP
supporters were beating up PP
supporters and a number of people
sustained injuries.
Machinga
North Political Intolerance
Political intolerance was observed in
East
Machinga.
Two
contesting
6|Page
candidates in primaries for Peoples
Party had a disagreement over the
outcome of the elections were not in
ones favor. There were quarrels
between the two contestants as the
loser MrAjiruKantendere complained
of favouritism and vote rigging
against the other contestant Sheriff
Mapasa. This forced one candidate,
MrKantendere to opt to run as an
independent candidate in the forthcoming elections and his supporters
agreed to that.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. From this report it is clear that there is great need for intensive civic and voter education
to the larger proportion of the Malawian electorate.In addition, there is need for more
funds to accredited CSOs so that they intensify voter and civic education.
2. MESN recommends that all political parties and candidates observe the electoral laws
and avoid malpractices that will breach the success of free, fair and credible elections in
Malawi.
3. Eligibility requirements for all candidates to participate in elections should be reviewed
so that candidates can complete forms on their own.
7|Page