By Steven Nhlane

Copyright mwnation

As Malawians wait for the official announcement of the General Election results by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), it is extremely important for all stakeholders to remain patient, calm but vigilant.

People should be patient and calm to allow MEC to do its job without undue pressure.

But pol i t i c a l l eader s should be vigi lant and ensure they carefully follow the proceedings as results are counted and transferred from pol ling centres to constituency, district and to the national tally centre.

According to section 98 of the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act, MEC has eight days within which to announce and publish the results. There was a good reason framers of the law gave MEC up to eight days for the official release of the results. One of them is to accord it ample time to diligently work on the results as well as resolve queries and complaints from candidates and political parties.

After counting and during the eight-day waiting period for MEC to announce the results, stakeholders are free to announce the results but these are unofficial. It is only MEC which is mandated to declare a candidate a winner.

I t i s a g a i n s t t h i s background that Malawians were on Wednesday startled by the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who held separate press briefings where each said it was poised for victory in the polls.

To start with, apart from being illegal, there is no need for political parties or candidates to be fighting at this point in time about who has won or lost. That job had its time—the 60-day official campaign period when political parties and candidates had all the time to reach out to the electorates to convince them to give them their vote.

But more importantly, a vote is an expression of confidence or lack of it in a candidate. It is an interpretation of what people think about a candidate going forward. For MCP which has been in power since 2020, people were looking at its performance during the five years of its rule and deciding whether or not to give them another five years. Or whether to try their luck on another candidate.

The voting pattern this year has not deviated much from the previous years, where the South mostly votes for a Southerner and the Centre gives its vote to a candidate from this region. The North, on the other hand, votes based on merit.

That is why from the unofficial results, the Southern Region has largely voted for the DPP candidate, Peter Mutharika, and the Centre for Lazarus Chakwera, the MCP torchbearer in the elections. The Northern Region vote has been merit-based. That Mutharika has amassed more votes than Chakwera in the North, according to the unofficial results, shows that MCP has done less than what people expected from it during its rule. The North has been the real swing region for the polls.

Addi tiona l ly, v i c tor y declarations by the political parties before MEC announces the results would only create tension and violence in the country should the final results turn out differently. But whether a candidate is winning or losing, eight days is not too long for one to wait for the Commission to do its job.

We echo all groups in condemning the conduct of declaring victory before MEC has announced the final and official results. It was grossly irresponsible and dangerous for MCP and DPP to prematurely declare victory to their supporters.

This is only the fourth day after voting meaning MEC still has another four days during which it is legally mandated to declare the results. Political leaders should therefore hold their patience until MEC comes with the finals results.

But even after MEC has announced the results, the victorious teams should cel eb rate respons ibl y without inciting violence. Lo s er s a l so have t h e responsibility of reflecting on why they los t and plan to do better next time. The lesson to take home is that patience is a virtue and elections are an accountability tool for voters. If DPP which was kicked out of power in 2020 is coming back, it means MCP has not done enough during the five years it has been in power.

snhlane@mwnation.com; Cell: 0888833906