rigging, rigging everywhere

Its 9 days to the May 19 general elections and allegations of rigging ae everywhere. the ruling party DPP says the opposition will rig, the main opposition parties, the UDF/MCP alliance/coalition says there are ballot papers at Sanjika Palace, the presidential residence, just waiting to be stuffed in ballot boxes--Never mind they were present when the ballot papers arrived at Kamuzu International Airport on Wednesday.

The opposition parties have apparently formed a committee to investigate the ruling party's plans to rig the elections.

I have the feeling that this general election will not end well. If allegations of vote rigging are already taking place now, what hope is there that any of these sides will accept the results once the voting is over?

Both will believe the other rigged the elections but I guess thats Africa for you--nobody accepts the results as they are but come May 24, we will have forgotten all, some people will be in court protesting but we will move on and we will have a new president.

I just wish the elections were tomorrow to avoid these heated arguments over where the ballot papers should be located and who should look after them.

In two days, the ballot papers will be transferred from the storage to start distribution to districts. I shudder to imagine what will happen then.

Today's The Sunday Times of Blantyre Newspapers Ltd has published names and pictures of female candidates under the 50-50 representation bid. A colleague of mine calculated the number of female candidates against that of the men and found that its not 50 per cent. meaning this campaign might not bear fruits after all.

However I do support all initiative to ensure that the number of women in Parliament increases from that of 2004 (27%) and I applaud BNL for the effort.

just 9 days to go...