Africa-Press – Malawi. TENTHANI—We have received a number of complaintsDays into the official launch of the 60-day official campaign period, complaints pertaining to political handouts have started piling up in the office of the Registrar of Political Parties, The Daily Times has learned.
Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani confirmed the development.
“We have received a number of complaints, about 15 or so, where people are coming out and giving us information from this. The registrar’s office should enforce the law across the board. They should not be selective. Otherwise, if they are selective, they will reduce the law to a barking dog on the leash that has no capacity to bite,” he said.
At the time, Tenthani said his office was ready to enforce the law as it had made strides to ensure its enforcement.
“Under the regulations that have been gazetted, we have developed a procedure of how people can lodge a complaint to our office and the steps we will be taking once we get a complaint,” Tenthani said.
He said his office was expected to roll out a public education programme in all the districts of the country this week.
“We are also rolling out a public education programme in all the districts, first targeting district political leaders,” Tenthani said.
He was, however, quick to say that his office was doing its best to ensure the successful implementation of the law.
Michael Kaiyatsa“Given the time we had to get the office up and running, we are trying, to the best of our abilities, to get things going. We may not be where I would have wanted us to be, but we are trying to push on,” he said.
Recently, there were concerns over some issues in the law.
For example, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation Executive Director Michael Kaiyatsa said the law had a number of gaps that needed to be addressed.
“One of the weaknesses that we identified was the way the term handouts is being defined. We thought that the definition is a bit narrow. It’s important that it should be broadened to include things like development projects that are initiated for purposes of enticing voters,” Kaiyatsa said.
He also said reporting procedures of the practice of handouts were made difficult in regulations as it needed complainants to have substantial evidence when reporting the malpractice.
The campaign period ends on September 14 this year.
For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press
