With Malawi emerging from the second multiparty elections since the MCP government led by the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda was deposed in 1994, the electoral process and the whole election atmosphere leaves one with too many questions unanswered. And when one is over with the reflection, he is still left with elements of confusion and trepidation: for the nation, for the main players, and above all, for the local man and woman, the defenceless child and elderly.

While the elections of 1994 were characterised by uncertainties (not only of the outcome, but if Kamuzu Banda and his henchmen would accept a loss verdict and what the future would bring to a Kamuzuless Malawi), the forthcoming one is characterised by more than uncertainty and anxiety, but fear (of the unknown) and a feeling that we are now plunging into an endless abyss from which we may not be able to extricate ourselves easily.

This article's aim is to chronicle some of the reasons that make any Malawian to tremble about the prospects of the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. It is very important, nevertheless, to hasten to add here that the present situation of fear and uncertainty is not something that has come about because of the electoral process. This is simply a culmination of a long process of ills that can be traced back to 1996-1998. During these years, a number of developments came up that alarmed every sane Malawian and which could have been read as indicators of worsening times.

First, armed robberies became the order of the day. People were being shot at, murdered and butchered in the most sordid and heinous manner. Cars could disappear into thin air and those who still held on to theirs had to risk driving them, at first in bumpy roads, then roads full of pot hole, now in drum holes or in the bush! Driving on the roads of Malawi became a nightmare and a suicidal venture.

This led to daily accidents that left everybody awed. Then a spate of violence against women was ushered into the scene. Rape cases were everyday news. The print media documented them

all in telling style and the radio aired them too. Added to this entire grim picture, corruption of unprecedented manner entered the scene.

This did not leave out any level of the societal spectrum. Government officials (Ministers) were mentioned in scandalous cases; law enforcing officials (the police and customs and immigration officers) were implicated in shady deals where millions of Malawi kwacha was in contention. What was more disheartening was that even the guardians of the constitution and the law, lawyers and high court judges, were also dragged into this malpractice. The educational system was affected too with examination leakage and administration malpractice reaching unprecedented levels.

Malawi, a nation of peace loving, respectful and honest people, had lost its innocence and been plunged into a state of anarchy and disillusionment. She was now caught in the crossfire of cultural and political change and she could not harness the opportunities that came with the newly found democratic environment to forge ahead positively in this transition period.

Instead of the new political dispensation becoming a positive motivating factor for cultural, religious, socio-political and economic change, it brought in nostalgia for the past glory and 'peace' (despite many ills), fear of what the next day would bring. Insecurity and disillusion with the leaders and the new institutions which they were trying to put into place became the order of the day.

The oft-heard slogan "We want change" became a cry; "We loathe change". Though some measures were put in place to remove or ease some of the suffering endured by the whole populace, everybody could see that the writing was on the wall for worse things to come - and this came!

Towards the last quarter of 1998 and the beginning of 1999, the Malawi economy plunged into a deep abyss. Two major devaluations came within a period of two months, compounding the already struggling economic situation. Inflation shot through the ceiling and basic commodities became affordable only to the 'have-alls'. Maize price, raw material for Malawi's staple food, soared from MK 150.00 to MK250 then MK365 per 50kg bag at the official ADMARC selling points, if you could ever come by it!

With workers' salaries remaining constant and the Kwacha reeling from the slavish implementation of the IMF/World Bank dictated programmes of SAP and its twin sister(s) - free market and price liberalisation, wholesalers hoarded lifeline goods and retailers pegged exorbitant prices to the available goods beyond the reach of the common person.

As if to add fuel to the amber, fuel prices doubled with the removal of all government subsidies on fuel and farm in puts. This ushered in a new wave of discontentment as prices of commodities were raised again in the name of expensive means of transporting the merchandise from manufacturers to selling points. It was clear this time that even the blind could see that the policy makers had lost their sense of direction and the country's economy was without any sensible 'driver'.

The whole picture attained childlike games when the president himself, in a bid to exonerate himself from the prevailing chaos, declared in public that he was not answerable to the rising costs since "ine ndilibe golosale" ("I don't have a grocery shop").

The question which made many Malawians to ask quo vadis, Malawi? was: if the highest authority in the land cannot explain clearly the cause(s) of the country's economic mishaps, who can do it? What of the other ills?

This added to the existing confusion and anarchy and the situation became hopeless. It was in this limbo-like state that the Electoral Commission came forward with its timetable and program for this year's presidential and parliamentary elections. As it were, the elections were set in a dim and grim background.

• Freedom of Thought and Expression

Though the election field of play was marked by the problems just mentioned, one could still decipher some positive elements in the run up to the D-day, elements which were markedly missing in the 1994 first democratic multiparty elections. For instance, the daily and weekly newspapers are now not as much full of personal attacks on individuals and personality mudslinging as was the case in the past. They mostly dwell on issues of national interest: the fledgling economy, breakdown in

security and escalating violence against women and children, rising costs of living, unfulfilled promises, mismanagement and maladministration of resources and politicians' insensitivity (indifference?) to the common man's suffering to name but few.

• A Maturing Press

Also, unlike the previous election campaign period, this time the papers were useful (and successful to a certain point) in bringing to the fore of national scrutiny what the competing parties are offering and also pointing out the loopholes in the electoral process, and especially the oversights and omissions of the Electoral Commission. Their concerted effort and a personal physiological mishap led to the stepping down of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, high court judge Justice Hanjahanja.

Another lawyer, Justice Kalaile, replaced him. And again, the print media has this time been useful in helping many Malawians enjoy their God-given right to freedom of expression. This has been one of the notable issues they have tackled in their feature articles, reports, opinion column, and letters to the editor and even cartoons.

Malawi artists have produced some of the most expressive cartoons that caught the socio-political and economic mood and its inherent dilemma and leaders' attitudes in a very satirical manner. Going through them posthumously, one is left wondering where all this artistic skill and talent was hiding in the last 35 years and this experience renders support to the observation that good art is produced in times of suffering and misfortune.

• The Electoral Process

Coming to the electoral process itself, especially the campaign phase, one discerns nerve-wrecking problems. It all started with the issue of aspiring presidential candidates from two of the opposition parties seeking the court's views on their eligibility for candidacy.

In a clear misuse of the powers vested on him, the state president dared come in the open and intervene. He claimed that in the name of democracy, he was willing to accept the two, Gwanda Chakwamba and Chakufwa Chihana, to stand in the forthcoming elections despite their being illegible.

Both were barred by a constitutional clause that does not allow any person who has been convicted by the courts for criminal offence in the last seven years to stand for public office. Both had been "convicted" during that time. Everybody, including the president himself, thought that by showing that gesture, he was enhancing his stature as a democrat.

• Constitutional Crisis

But he was yet to be tried to the limits when the two leaders announced the MCP-AFORD Alliance with Chakwamba as the presidential candidate and Chihana his running mate. This surprise move was at first not taken seriously by many (especially in the wake of internal squabbles masterminded by a veteran politician, John Tembo, who felt that he had been sidelined), but it passed the litmus test.

The Alliance found support from a wider spectrum of the society and posed a clear threat to the UDF. In a bid to divide it again, UDF functionaries (with the president at the helm) openly spoke against the unconstitutionality of the arrangement.

• Commission's Independency Questioned.

As if taking their cue from the president's statements, the Electoral Commission pronounced that Chihana could not stand as running-mate to Chakwamba. The Law Society, in its unofficial capacity, tabled this at an extraordinary meeting and came up with an opposing opinion. This confused everybody further as nobody knew whom to listen to know.

The High Court later confirmed their decision and the Electoral Commission, in a move nobody could understand, appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeals! People were dismayed. Though it withdrew the case later "as not to delay the electoral process and to be seen that it is not partisan", the damage had already been done. People had already lost their trust in it and questioned its neutrality.

• Incompetent Commission(ers)

While it was wasting time in these party squabbles, it had neglected its other duties. This came to the fore when the registration centres opened their doors only to be found lacking in almost everything. In some centres, there were no registration forms. Where they were available, the officials manning the centre had been hastily trained and could not carry out their tasks effectively.

In others, there were no cameras for photographing the voters (a new idea introduced this time). Those centres that had cameras either did not have films (or had very few) or had few cameras; or the photographers did not know how to manipulate the machines. This resulted in only few registration centres being opened and functioning properly.

People could go and spend hours to register, only to return without the all-important voter registration card. With these problems taking too long to be addressed squarely, voter apathy cropped in. The unanswered question still remained why the Electoral Commission had put itself in such a mess if they had agreed to be entrusted with such a complex job just at the eleventh hour?

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission resigned on "medical grounds". Justice Kalaile became the new chairperson. In a bid to refurbish the tarnished image of the Electoral Commission, he withdrew the Commission's case from the Supreme Court on the running mate issue. He consulted widely on how best to correct some of the previous problems that engendered mistrust between the Commission and stakeholders: competing political parties, Churches, NGOs, representatives of the fourth estate etc.

Despite these initiatives, two other problems were to beset his work. First, the opposition parties demanded equal air coverage of their campaign rallies on Malawi's national radio station, MBC. What was happening was that the State President would go touring the country "to meet traditional leaders and their people to discuss with them development projects". However, at the rallies that accompanied such visits, the UDF party's manifesto dominated the proceedings. The state radio would then rebroadcast the rallies in the evening.

On account of this, the opposition cried foul that the president and his party were monopolising the state radio and that the president was using government resources to fund and run his party's electoral bid. Just when the chairperson of the electoral commission was grappling with this problem, another complaint came, this time from a different quarter.

In a fresh attempt to stamp their authority on the electoral scene, the Church-NGO Consortium logged a complaint to the Electoral Commission on the method of voting. This year's ballot paper was designed as to have three columns. The first contained names of candidates (and running mates) and their photographs. The second contained party names and symbols. The last one was marked "Choice": Mark ONE

Choice. It is this last column that was at the centre of contention. Voters were supposed to mark, by ticking using a provided marking material (e.g., pen), in this space only.

The NGOs reminded the government that 60% of the Malawi population is illiterate and holding a marking material and ticking would pose a lot of difficulties. They discovered this in their civic education activities and they feared that this would result in too many null and void ballots. To get round the problem, the commission relaxed the rule by allowing that the voters mark either on the picture of a candidate of their choice, or on the party symbol or on the blank space marked "Choice".

Still more, the Church-NGO Consortium observed with alarm that "illiterate people were still having difficulties in holding writing material". As if this were not enough, some NGO civic educators were going about educating the voters using specimen ballots already marked against a particular choice! This put the whole exercise in fresh turmoil.

The real drama, however, was in the campaign rallies, inter-party open radio discussions and party messages aired on the national radio station. It is here where the nation's folly was uncovered with leaders washing their socio-economic and political dirty linen (policies) in public.

The Malawi Democratic Party (UDF) took a critical approach. They criticised everything associated with the new dispensation and took a holier-than-thou attitude towards the other contestants, claiming their hands are full of past sins. UDF's constant theme was that youth is underestimated and underused power. They identified themselves with the shining star from the East in the black sky.

UDF would then go on to plead for more time to 'continue and finish the development projects they had started'. In their new manifesto, they promised to pursue policies of poverty eradication since their other program, of poverty alleviation had been successful.

To render weight to their argument, the president started ditching out money to various groups of people and institutions (especially religious bodies) wherever he went to inspect development work and address public rallies. Their battle cry was "better the evil you know than the one you don't".

As for the United Party theirs was a philosophical approach. In their explanations, they were always at pain to analyse the situation, dissecting the context to reach the root cause. They reduced everything to academics, intelligence and knowledge.

For them the conclusion was always the same: incompetent people are running the country. Their solution to the existing socio-economic and political problems was to offer Plato's philosopher-king model: those qualified to lead must be those who have excelled in the academic world, not just any businessman.

As for the Congress for National Unity, they took a 'Christian' approach with all the fire and brimstone of 'prophets of God', as they claimed to be. They trod on the Elizabethan-like route of explaining reality. For them, the ill and misfortunes (i.e., corruption, rape, general suffering, the AIDS scourge, poor economy, etc.) being experienced by the Malawi people are a physical manifestation of God's displeasure with the political leaders of this country. They were offering Christian principles to replace the predominantly secular principles for governing "the people of God".

It is with the above concerns that all citizens of Malawi enter into the elections. The situation is one of worry, growing apathy and disillusionment about the future. What is most paining is that viable solutions do not seem to be in sight at the end of the tunnel. In the period running up to the elections, there has been a lot of disturbing events. For instance, there have been cases of violence associated with politics. This has enhanced the negative picture of insecurity and self-questioning about where we are heading to.

On 24 May an opinion poll was carried out by a Blantyre-based research firm called Statistical Services Research. The outcome of this opinion poll indicated that the ruling UDF would win the June 15 general elections by 61% with the opposition sharing the remaining 39%. Although many people are clearly disillusioned and frustrated, the opposition doesn't seem to have offered them a better alternative.

The prevailing general feeling that the forthcoming elections have been flout with too many eyebrow-raising irregularities is worrying because this would make any loser(s) to undermine the verdict and seek judicial reparation. This would further compound the dilemma. This is an indication that Malawi has failed the democratic test that calls for equal opportunities and fair play among contesting groups by failing to liberalise the state-run radio station which was monopolised by the UDF.

With all these developments one begins to wonder: will the opposition accept a loss verdict in such circumstances? What of the ruling party, which is using every hook and crook to return to the helm: If they lose, will they bow out honourably and be ready to taste the challenge of being in the opposition? And if they win, will they have a reasonable mandate to be the voice of the nation? All these questions add up to a big question: Quo Vadis, MALAWI?