Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Dr Chifundo Kachale has described the voting turn-out for Dedza Central Constituency not impressive, rating it between 23-25 percent.
However, the MEC chair said the development is not surprising as most by-elections are marred by low turnout.
He made the remarks at the close of voting on Thursday at Kampini Primary School in Dedza.
Responding if at all the voter apathy was mainly due to the time of closing the centers, which was 4pm, Kachale said people now need to get used to this.
He said there is a lot of value when voting closes in good time which enables counting of votes to be finalized on time, but he added his office has a lot of work to provide civic education to the masses on the same.
“Though that is the case, we have not received any incidents of violence apart from an incident at Nthandiza center where one Judith Banda voted when the real owner of the name came later on”.
“Another incident is about Malawi Congress Party (MCP) candidate Willard Alfred Gwengwe, who is said to be going about centres during vote casting. And as a commission, we will have incidents reports which will determine our action,” he said.
Earlier in the day, two poll observers from the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), expressed worry over the low turn-out for Dedza Central Constituency by-election.
NICE Trust Programs Officer Christopher Naphiyo said people need to know power of their vote.
On his part, CCJP’s National Coordinator Boniface Chibwana, said people need to understand that the country’s democracy is representative, which means that a larger number of people register to vote for a candidate of their choice for that person to represent them in the national assembly.
“Failing which the winner does not represent the majority of the community,” stated Chibwana.
The three candidates, namely MCP’s Gwengwe, Independent Jacob Joseph Kaumphawi and the Democratic Progressive Party’s Andrew Mtunga Kowedza, were battling it out for the August House seat.
By Steve Chirombo
