Extract Watching democracy at work, and being a part of making sure that the massive undertaking is cleanly administered, is deeply gratifying. As important is the exhaustive, detail-oriented attention that needs to be applied to ensure the outcome of the electoral process is free and fair. Altogether, it’s a crucial — and deeply humbling — business.
So it was with gratitude and a profound sense of duty that I accepted the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) invitation to join its observer mission in Malawi. Observing the May 21 election in the country was a privilege.
Taking part in this observation mission was something I undertook with the requisite solemnity necessary for ensuring the people of Malawi were allowed to exercise their democratic right. Of course, it was doubly poignant that while I was making sure the Malawians election was equitable, I was able to tune into the inauguration of our own president, Cyril Ramaphosa, from Blantyre.
Less than a month ago we went to the polls, and the result of that was witnessing a victory for Nelson Mandela’s party, the ANC. Having lived through the apartheid years where generations of my family had been denied our democratic right to elect our own leaders, the doubly joyful democratic moment — the SA and Malawi elections — was not lost on me.
And so, on May 14, I flew to Blantyre to join the COG.
It was something of an SA affair; former president Thabo Mbeki was the chair of the COG and Linford Andrews, a former SA diplomat, led the Commonwealth Secretariat. We joined men and women from The Gambia, Pakistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad, Canada (x 2), the UK, Lesotho, Cameroon and Nigeria.
For five days, the COG was briefed by all the stakeholders: the main political parties; members of the media (radio and print); the Media Institute of Southern Africa, the media regulatory body; the Malawi Electoral Support Network; citizen observers; youth groups; women’s groups; groups representing people with disabilities; the police…
Everyone, including the political parties, agreed that there had been conspicuous transparency. People (largely) trusted the MEC, something that promised a successful final outcome
They all came to provide information that would be useful in making a pronouncement on the outcome of the election.
Perhaps the most important briefing came from the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC). The head of the commission, judge Dr Jane Ansah, is an august, solemn woman as impressive (and not entirely unlike) our former public protector, Thuli Madonsela. She brought all the members of her team to walk us through the utterly transparent processes set up to ensure that everyone felt heard and included.
The efforts of the MEC paid off; everyone, including the political parties, agreed that there had been conspicuous transparency. People (largely) trusted the MEC, something that promised a successful final outcome.
Malawi has a first-past-the-post electoral system: he who has the most votes, wins (there were no women presidential candidates although this tripartite election saw a few women stand, and win local government and parliamentary seats). The Malawi rule is also that the result has to be declared within eight days of the election.
In the last observer mission in West Africa’s Sierra Leone, the winning candidate had to garner 55% of the votes. Not one candidate managed to do that and so there was a run-off between the top two candidates. It doubled the cost and time spent on the election.
I was deployed to northern Malawi, to a town called Mzuzu in the district of Mzimba. It’s a 10-hour drive from Blantyre, across the heart of Malawi. Once you’re there, it’s worth the trip.
Mzuzu is beautiful; a verdant town 1,254m above sea level, with a population of about 225,000 people. It’s small, and hilly so there are levels and layers that take you up and down and through this town with its manicured verges and traffic islands, with its neat trimmed hedges and established gardens.
Voting by moonlight
At 5.30am, we (I was deployed with a young Canadian man) visited our first polling station. It was cold out, the sun barely up when we arrived at a school in the heart of Mzuzu.
The cardboard booths were standing in neat rows, the ballot boxes — semi-transparent and appropriately sealed — were ready to receive ballot papers; the MEC officials were seated at their stations waiting to check voters off the voters’ register.
International observers from the EU, the African Union (AU), SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) all joined citizens and local observers.
The young Canadian was aghast again — people were now voting in the dark, under a thin moon, the only light provided by the MEC official’s cellphone torch
And then I saw my young Canadian companion’s face, incredulity and awe all over it. We’re outside, he whispered. The entire station, with its five streams had been set up under a pewter sky, some of it shaded by a giant tree, its root system threatening to trip up voters.
The Canadian was aghast; this wouldn’t — couldn’t — happen in Canada, he marveled; an open-air venue with Canadian weather would be unthinkable. The Malawians laughed and shrugged as they lined up to cast their vote.
That day, all but one of 24 stations we visited would be outdoors with no cover. The cool, early morning temperature would give way to searing midday heat, one of the reasons given as to why the majority of voters came to cast their ballot in the early part of the day.
I saw dozens of very young pregnant women in the lines, many with babies on their hip. The old and infirm came to vote, as did the blind, helped at the booths by MEC monitors. Party agents kept a beady eye on proceedings.
When we returned to our first polling station (having taken in 55 streams in 24 polling stations during election day), the light was fading. The young Canadian was aghast again — people were now voting in the dark, under a thin moon, the only light provided by the MEC official’s cellphone torch.
The election process had been peaceful, but not without controversy: an injunction; a court case; 147 fraud claims (every one investigated by the MEC before the result was declared); cries of Tippexed ballot papers; fake news disseminated on social media…
In the end, the incumbent was re-elected with just more than 38% of the vote to his rival’s 35%. There is talk of electoral reform, of the possibility of introducing a 50%-plus-one system.
But for now, the Malawians have spoken.
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