Leaders of Civil Society Organization have asked Justice Jane Ansah, the Chairperson of Malawi Electoral Commission to resign as they say they have lost trust in her over the way she is handling things.
The leaders, Billy Mayaya, Gift Trapence and Macdonald Sembereka have accused the MEC Chairperson of violating people`s rights to be represented in some constituencies in the country.
A statement released by CSO reads, “We have lost confidence in Justice Ansah’s ability to carry out the mandate of MEC without bias and undue influence from outside forces. Therefore, we maintain our call for Justice Ansah to resign with immediate effect.”
The MEC board postponed the by-elections which were to take place on 6th June in some constituencies saying there were no funds for that to take place.
The CSO also feels that the MEC Chair will compromise the coming 2019 general elections as they say it is deliberately barricading the holding of by-elections to favor the party in power (DPP).
The Civil Society Organization has since revealed that it is planning of holding demonstrations to force MEC to conduct the elections at the end of this month in Lilongwe.
The statement continue saying, “Due to the failure of the Malawi Electoral Commission to hold the by-elections by the 6th June 2017, we plan to hold demonstrations in Lilongwe City South Constituency on the 29th June 2017 to demand the release of adequate resources for the unconditional and unimpeded holding of these elections.”
Lilongwe South East Constituency is one of the constituencies that needs the by-elections following the court`s order which stated there was need for a re-run since 2014.
