Member of Parliament for Blantyre City South Constituency Noel Lipipa has questioned the idea of prioritizing the fresh elections over the well-being of Malawians amid threated pandemic- COVID-19.
Speaking in an interview Lipipa said that there is a need for Malawi to avoid being a nation that doesn’t put the well-being of its people first but democracy in this time of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We have allocated a whopping MK29Billion for fresh elections and only MK15Billion for Coronavirus and we are saying let’s go and vote exposing the 17 Million Malawians to the risk of contracting the virus because the courts ordered us to vote within 150 days. Have we lost our minds?” questioned Lipipa.
Malawi Electrol Commission (MEC) announced that fresh elections for presidential will be held on July 2, 2020.
Lipipa said that conducting an election means that people will be campaigning and on the date of voting people will queue to cast their votes which will potentially put people’s lives at risk of contracting the virus.
“Malawi’s economy is already hard pressed and would have to spread itself out even thinner if elections were to occur during the pandemic. Let’s not make Malawi a laughing stock and a shame in the face of the world. We can do politics after we conquer this common enemy the coronavirus,” he added.
Ethiopia has postponed parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for August due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Despite registering any cases of the pandemic, Malawi president Peter Mutharika declared the country as State of Disaster and directed that all schools, colleges (including technical colleges), both public and private universities should be closed and restricted public gatherings to less than 100 people as prevention measures.
