InMalawi, the political parties are going all-out in their campaigns to woo votersbefore the May 19 presidential and parliamentary elections. In fact, observerssay the campaign has been marred by speeches full of hate and blame ? posing achallenge to those hoping for elections free of violence.
Malawi's presidential candidates have signed a Code of Conduct with the MalawiElectoral Commission as a guideline to free and fair polls. The agreement was reached in February by allseven presidential candidates, during the presentation of nomination papers.Among those who signed were current president Bingu wa Mutharika of the rulingDemocratic Progressive Party, Kamuzu Chibambo of the People's TransformationParty, and John Tembo, representing the alliance between the Malawi CongressParty and the United Democratic Front Alliance,
Theother candidates and signatories are Stanley Masuali of the New Republicanparty, Dindi Gowa Nyasulu of the Alliance for Democracy, Loveness Gondwe of theNew Rainbow Coalition and an independent aspirant, James Nyondo.
Thedocument includes a clause that forbids the contestants to attack each other during campaign rallies.But observers say on the ground, the candidates are not following the rules.
NoelMbowela, a political scientist at Mzuzu University, says "It'squite inauspicious that most political parties are not adhering to the code ofconduct. Instead of campaigning, they are mentioning names, and when theymention those names, the stories are not very good. They are full ofcastigatory remarks and some other very bad comments."
Hesays this does not auger well with free and fair elections that the country istrying to achieve.
Noneof the political parties admit misconduct.
IshmaelChafukira, the spokesperson for the MCP, says "Ithink the Malawi Congress Party is the only party that is currently upholdingelements which were in the Code of Conduct one of which is resisting frommaking hate speeches on the podium."
Hesays none of the party's rivals has filed a complaint about it.
HenryChimunthu-Banda is the secretary general of the ruling DPP.
"Weare implementing what was contained and signed in the Code of Conduct. Becauseof the free and fair election to take place we need to observe a Code ofConduct as provided by the Malawi Electoral Commission."
Despitethe parties' denials, recent developments confirm that the political leadershave indeed been attacking each other in theirpolitical rallies. Opposition leader Kamlepo Kaluwa and UDF deputy secretarygeneral Hophmally Makande were arrested for allegedly demeaning PresidentMutharika during a campaign rally.
Butthe president himself, at a political rally, described independent candidatesas hyenas, angering many independent candidates and their supporters.
Theparty's spokesman, Hetherwick Ntaba, downplayed the word, calling it just afigure of speech.
"Thepresident," he says, "was equating the conduct of some of these independents who areactually carrying most of their operations at night. A hyena usuallyoperates at night because it doesn't want other things to be known by othermembers of the surrounding. So as a figure of speech, people should take thecontext on what that statement meant."
FegusLipenga is the spokesperson for the Malawi Electoral Commission. He says thecommission is saddened by tone of the campaign.
"Tocontinue castigating each other is very unfortunate," says Lipenga. "We would like to urge themto stop that and abide by the code of conduct. People would like to listen toissues not castigations. If you reduce castigations, then there will be lesserpossibility of having violence during elections." So it's an appeal topolitical parties to abide by the code of conduct for peaceful elections."
Besidesthe Code of Conduct, DPP, MCP and UDF also signed the Memorandum of Understandingbrokered by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano. It was designed toguide the political leaders toward a campaign free of violence.
TheCode of Conduct does not provide penalties for those who break the rules, nordoes it have the power to investigate complaints. The only recourse for anaggrieved party is to take the matter to court.