Those Papers

It is yet another wonderful Friday and Valentine’s Boxing Day. I am told that this is the day of the MG2 and if your spouse gave excuses for not seeing you yesterday, it probably was because he was with the MG1. You will get your roses and chocolate today but chances are that the relationship will not amount to anything. I just read that somewhere, anyway. Don’t kill the messenger.

The choice of a topic for the day wasn’t as difficult. While I initially thought of writing something to do with the season of love we are going through, the negative response that I got from some readers (mostly ladies) when I asked whether I should write a Valentine’s Day article got my pen shifting to the political scene. On the other hand, there was deafening silence from Richie Online when political activity was the high the presentation of nomination papers for presidential aspirants (and aspirantial presidents).  We are making up for that.

The country’s electoral commission has now released the final list of nine candidates who will be on the ballot come May 21. Worth noting is that our Rastafarian aspirant and the NASAF presidential candidate did not make the cut and the country will have to choose between Abusa, Adadi, Amayi, ukiti ukiti, the professor of hematology and the baby. Completing the matrix of candidates are the likes of Peter DSD Kuwani of the Mbakuwaku Movement for Development, the independent Reverend Hadwick Kaliya and former veep, Dr Cassim Chilumpha.

Rather interestingly, there were 23 people who collected and were supposed to present presidential nomination forms. Out of those, 10 successfully presented and it is out of those that the list of the 9 has been made following the disqualification of the candidate for the National Salvation Front. In line with all the proportions, one would wonder why more than half of the people who collected the nomination forms either did not present the papers or did not make the final cut of the candidates.

Starting with the obvious, some of the candidates who collected the nomination papers ended up being squished into some electoral alliances or endorsing other candidates. That was Hon. Enock Chihana and Honorable Khumbo Kachali who have joined forces with UTM and have endorsed the Malawi Congress party respectively.

The other set of candidates simply just collected the papers and decided not to show up with them when the time they were allocated for presentation came. Rather interestingly, this was a mixture of independents and candidates representing parties. One would wonder as to why they ended up not presenting their papers. I have two possible explanations for this. The first could be that the candidates or their respective parties changed their minds and decided not to give the presidency a shot. The second could be that they felt that they did not satisfy the conditions for the candidacy. These ones had the decency and they voluntarily chose to save the time and resources we were using to follow the proceedings. Kudos.

The main reason I wrote this article, however was that bunch of candidates that came in with their nomination papers having not fulfilled the requirements. I am told that one Miss Florence Fulayi who some mean people decided to call Amayi Maria showed up two or three days after her allocated slot. She  probably did not have the required nominators and I doubt she deposited the fees.

The legendary Smart Swira showed up on time but without a running mate. He was seen trying to call his running mate and upon being asked whether he had fulfilled all the requirements, he told journalists that all they needed to do was wait for the announcement from commissioners. The announcement? He did not pay the fee, had no particulars of his running mate on the forms, was not a registered voter and did not give proof of his Malawian citizenship. The running mate who had been on the road, according to the “aspirantial president” had turned back because her child had gotten injured at school and was being rushed to the hospital. Good motherly instincts, right there. One Damiano Ganiza showed up at Chichiri Convention Center with his Bible and looking like he wanted to preach, according to a good friend of mine. Ha had come on time but from the look of the MEC report, the guy did not submit the papers.

Ras Chikomeni (I know you were waiting for this one). Here is one guy who shook the airwaves when he announced that he was vying for the presidency. The guy could articulate issues and one could clearly see that he understands the laws on which the foundations of this nation are built. He picked his mum for running mate and when the day of presentation of his nomination papers came, he pulled crowds (anthu okonda zinthu a ku Kabula). It was only after the introduction of the running mate and the scrutinization of his papers that it was noted that he did not have adequate nominators and he had not paid the nomination fees. When he was asked by journalists, he clearly said that he did not have the money. He then quickly switched to activist mode and began to school us all on how the electoral processes favor people in political parties who have structures and the rich people who can manage to pay what he described as inhibiting and exorbitant fees. He was described by many as a hero and activist by many, who thought he was fighting for the voiceless. I did not buy into that logic because I thought that was just some misplaced posturing and some publicity stunt. For me, those nominations and fees really are the minimum one should give us as Malawians for them to be given a shot at the post of the country’s CEO. Its unfortunate someone used this whole process as a platform for activism. Koma nzabhobho.

With all the big heavyweights but abusa keeping their running mates under wraps until the presentation of nomination papers, there was a lot of reaction  to the choices that presidential candidates made. JB picked up one Dr Jerry Jana, a career diplomat whose academic and work profile seems to beat them all. The current veep picked up comedy sensation and former ADRA director, Dr Michael Ussi and AAM unveiled  Frank Mwenifumbo as running mate before el presidente dropped a nuke of surprise by picking honorable Overton Chimulirenji to run with him. There was a lot of discussion surrounding the choice of “Manganya” as UTM running mate with some not thinking it was a good decision considering his apolitical background. Others also thought that he was not someone we could put in a post as big as one of being the country’s second in command. Counter arguments flowed in and more than a week later some are still talking about this.

One other interesting pick was honorable Chimulirenji. When the video feed showed him going in with adadi, everyone who was watching on Zodiak was left wondering as to who the guy  was. We later learnt that this was the man of integrity and well educated man that APM had chosen to run with. Haters were soon posting screenshots of 2013 posts from his Facebook wall. Others were all over posting how he was not adequately educated and had difficulties with expressing himself in the Queen’s language. Counter arguments flowed in from the blue camp. A post was released to explain what APM had avoided by choosing the former minister of defense. Flyers of his profile indicating how he studied business management flooded our WhatsApp forums. I would like to believe that APM was objective and that his hand was forced to pick as people stipulate. What I am failing to understand is how a good number of people who supposedly follow politics were unable to recognize a cabinet minister of their own country; one with high chances of being the country’s number 2. Topic for another day.

The picking of running mates whose abilities and identities leave people in awe and the collection and presentation of nomination papers for the presidency without the prescribed requirements has got me asking whether we as a country take the office of the president with the seriousness it deserves. I got picked on when I wrote on Facebook that some of these candidates do not qualify for the post because of their inability to raise the nomination fees. In my line of thought,  while raising and managing such an amount is not a sufficient condition for the presidency, it is a very necessary condition. Others begged to differ, of course. Opinions.

One person proposed that the lack of seriousness demonstrated by aspirants may just be a product of the current leadership; which has made everyone think that they can do better than what we have. I personally think that this is a far-fetched idea, but what if the guy has a point?

We have our nine candidates and their running mates and unfortunately your favorite Rastafarian did not make the list. Whether you will draw him on the ballot paper and vote for him as some have suggested on WhatsApp is a question of another day but what this year has shown us is that there is a need for some serious amendments in our electoral laws.

Reporting live from the Men’s Conference.