In Malawi, a localthink tank, the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), says it doubts assurancesby the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) that next week's presidential andparliamentary elections will be free and fair.
The executive director of IPI, Rafik Hajat, says there havebeen problems with the electoral process ? for example, the cameras used forthe photographs on voter identity cards.
"As you know thousands of cameras didn't work.And the challenges facing both the registration of voters and verification ofvoters' rolls [has] shown?me that the whole process was mismanaged," he says.
ButMalawi Electoral Commission spokesperson Fegus Lipenga says the problem was solvedby replacing the faulty cameras. And, he says the registration period wasextended to about three weeks to give room to those who did not registerbecause of the faulty equipment.
"Procurementis in progress. A lot of things have already arrived in preparation for thepolls. The civil society is out there educating people on how to vote and allother information as regard to elections. And also at the Electoral Commissionwe are now working on the voter list to make it ready for the poll," she says.
MEC's commissioner, Georgina Chikoko sayseverything is now in place to ensure free and fair elections.
The executive director of the Institute forPolicy Interaction says there's been political interference from the electoral commissionand that it ignores the complaints of observers.
"Theappointment of the commissioners has never been ratified by parliament and?the commissionfeels beleaguered. It feels like it's in a battle and it has to defend itself,"he says.
Governmentspokesperson Patricia Kaliati responds by saying the composition of thecommissioners is legitimate, since it's the mandate of the president to appointthem and no commissioner is affiliated with a political party.
Somecomplain that the state media is favoring the ruling party. The state-ownedmedia has refused to allot free air time for opposition advertisements becausethe opposition-controlled parliament refused to fund them.
Butelectoral commission spokesperson Fegus Lipenga says the board offered to fundcommercials designed by the political parties that would run on the state runMalawi Broadcasting Corporation and Malawi Television. He says the politicalparties instead decided to advertise only on private radio stations. So he saysthe commission is paying for political parties' campaign messages on privateradio stations.
This year's presidential and parliamentaryelections will be the fourth to be held since 1994 when Malawi embracedmultiparty democracy.
Over the years the stakeholders have beenaccusing the electoral commission of supporting the incumbent political party ?an allegation it vehemently denies.