Malawi’s human rights defenders to proceed with protests despite Ansah’s resignation

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC)  says has welcomed the resignation of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah, but vows to proceed with their may 28 protest to demand the resignation of all commissioners at the electoral body.

Initially, the demonstrations were meant to continue mounting pressure on Ansah to resign including all the commissioners.

But Ansah has tendered her resignation to President Peter Mutharika but she was quick to say that her decision was not based on demonstrations by the HRDC.

Speaking to Capital FM on Friday morning, HRDC senior member Billy Mayaya insisted that Commissioners should also resign and not wait for the expiry of their mandate.

Recently, one of the key commissioners Jean Mathanga told journalists that she is not incompetent as it is alleged by different quarters and insisted that she will not resign until her contract comes to an end on 15^th June this year.

“The answer is I am not resigning. I will continue disseminating or discharging my duties to the end of 15^th June which is a matter of few weeks from now,” she said in response to a question posed by media staffer who branded her and fellow commissioners incompetent.

“I would not to agree with you gentleman. I am not incompetent,” she added.

Meanwhile, President Peter Mutharika has accepted the resignation of Jane Ansah.

Maneno Chimulala

I am a journalist, educator, and activist with passion for telling stories about social justice, sports and political issues. I graduated from Mzuzu University. I started my career at the Maravi Post online publication in 2012 as an intern while in college. Upon graduating from Mzuzu University I was offered a job as Sports Reporter because of my background as a goalkeeper and rose to the position of sub editor. I also had a short stint with Nyasatimes, Malawi Punch and Malawi Digest. Over the past seven years, I have worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Malawi on human rights, girl child education and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in education, I also volunteer as male champion for girls’ education under Girls Empowerment Networks (GENET) in Malawi’s South West Education Division (SWED).