IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 20, 2014

Contact:

Steve Duwa, Malawi Electoral Support Network, 0888644813

BLANTYRE - As of 9:30 a.m. it is clear from reports from MESN Observers that there the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is experiencing challenges across the country with the delivery of polling station materials that is delaying the opening of a substantial number polling stations.

Nationally, MESN Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) Observers are reporting 61% of polling stations open. However, in Eastern region 73% of polling stations are report as open compared to 43% reported open in Southern region¹ (see Chart 1).

MESN calls upon the MEC to take urgent actions to address these challenges and ensure that all of the polling stations open. The MEC should also guarantee that all registered voters have a opportunity to vote regardless of the time their polling station opened.

MESN has received a total of 150 critical incident reports from the 1,500 MESN Short Term Observers (STOs) and MESN 800 Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) Observers (see Table 1).

Nineteen (19) of these incidents related to accredited MESN Observers initially not being granted access to polling stations by presiding officers because their names had not been transmitted by MEC to the polling station. However, all of these incidents have, so far, been successfully resolved. The vast majority (115) related to the late delivery of election materials.

_{1. MESN’s PVT Observers are deployed to a representative random sample of polling stations in all three regions, all 28 districts and all 193 constituencies of the country.}