Why Most Government Fear Local Polls

WHY MOST CENTRAL GOVTS FEAR LOCAL GOVTS


The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has finally announced that local polls will not be held on November 23, as initially planned, and the reasons given for the postponement might make sense. But, perhaps, there is something beyond all what is there on the surface. Maybe, there is something about Local Governments which most Central Governments fear, for it is not in Malawi alone where local polls have been treated such inconsiderately.


Malawi’s first democratic government showed some interest in local polls by strengthening local government institutions, but the elections were only held six years later. With the current administration, after the same six years, our final ray of hope was banked on the president and the Electoral Commission.

But, even if these local polls were to be held this year in November as per the earlier announcement, it seems their essence would be limited due to the little powers that the Local-Governments-to-be have finally been given.

Until towards the end of last year, there was little indication that Malawi would hold local elections, since there were no clear preparations for the costly event from concerned stakeholders. And the most peculiar thing remained that these stakeholders kept shifting the ball from one court into another, perhaps with the aim of letting others be held responsible for failure to hold the much needed elections, should they not be held – which they did.

And finally, the truth was told; the meaning of the unwillingness on the part of stakeholders clearly got vindicated by Parliament’s decision to pass an amended bill which now gives the president, in collaboration with the Electoral Commission, powers to decide on the date of the polls.

In line with the amended provision, the date was finally set and Malawians were eager to choose their local representatives. But now, it has been announced that the polls will not be there; and perhaps will never be there.

There is something peculiar about how Local Government elections are viewed in most African countries, Malawi inclusive. Most democratic governments in Africa are not utterly committed to holding these elections, and if at all they hold the elections, the state tries its utmost to suppress the powers of the Local Governments. And in the case of Malawi, since we attained our multiparty democracy some fifteen years ago or so, Local Government polls have only been held once – in 2000.

Asiyati Chiweza, a lecturer in Public and Administrative Studies at Chancellor College, writing in a book titled Government and Politics in Malawi, observes that: “Due to political changes that took place in 1994, the new Malawi government made the strengthening of Local Government institutions as a priority.”

But the fact that this first democratic government held the first elections in 2000 – six years later – implies that it, too, did not have the essence of the elections at heart, despite having shown initial interest.

And now, recently, Malawians were complaining that government should do something as soon as possible so that the essence of the local assemblies is not completely suppressed to such an extent that they may finally be universally considered to be less significant.

Until the amendment, there was a cloud of uncertainty hanging on the possibility of this country ever having the local polls again. Many individuals and stakeholders reached the point of announcing that government no longer considered local polls as a significant lot in democracy. And, with the date set, a sigh of relief was gladly heaved by Malawians, only to be disappointed again this time.

One significant thing to note is that in 2005, the polls were postponed indefinitely and there were myriad voices from NGOs and interested individuals blaming government for ignoring the ‘essence’ of Ward Councilors who, the NGOs and individuals argued, are usually very instrumental in development programmes especially at the local level.

The stark reality of the existence of Ward Councilors is that power is transferred from the state to the Local Government. Perhaps, this is why most governments appear to be non-committal as long as conducting local polls is concerned. Calling a spade by what its name, decentralization has an impact on the state: there is a risk of it becoming irrelevant in the long run.

But, this can usually be the case where a leader is not commanding support across the country; where most of their policies are being bashed by the majority of voters; where chances that the masses from some sections of the country may rally together and rebel against the state are high.

And at the moment, this appears to be the case with President Bingu wa Mutharika’s government which has come under fire from different individuals and stakeholders for some policies which are deemed to be not in the interest of the public at large. Perhaps, this is what might be compelling MEC to ignore Local Government polls.

Now, it is clear that the president is usually the one who has the final say on the possibility of having or not having the local polls, despite the ‘theoretical’ part of the amended provision that stipulates that the president shall decide on the date of the local polls in consultation with the Electoral Commission. Reading between the lines, the extension of the amended provision may be that if the president does not want the elections to take place, he can gladly do so without much as hard work.

However, of late, there wasn’t much silence on the local polls, although there wasn’t enough talk still, other than the theoretical date, which, but, was also not supported by tangible preparations. But, the fact that Goodall Gondwe some time back urged political parties to start campaigning for the elections was enough evidence for the conclusion that this was the year of the second Local Government polls since 1994.

But, the urge was not enough for the opposition MCP and UDF since they wanted something tangible; they wanted something which they would be sure will materialize. They are financially-challenged political parties, and, therefore, to them, starting to campaign then for the polls would be unwise, because anything could happen, including failure to have the elections altogether. And now, their fears have been vindicated.

After all, MCP spokesperson Nancy Tembo had this to say on the local polls: “Government does not want to commit itself and is not showing seriousness…. We do not know whether they (the local polls) will take place or not because we have been waiting since 2005.”

Tembo should be proved right now; there indeed will be no local polls this year; or maybe not even any other year from now, but wouldn’t this mean taking Malawians for granted? After, being tricked numerous times already, will Malawians accept to continue being in government without Ward Councilors?

They have already expressed their disappointment with most of their representatives in the National Assembly, who they argue, seldom visit them to solicit their views on matters of national interest.

Perhaps, this is one of the most compelling reasons why avoiding local polls this year was just impracticable; why November would have been the month of answers. Maybe, the Central Government has some fear for Local Governments.

“There is one important thing about local polls that has to be noted. Malawi, like many other modern states, is divided on a territorial basis between national and regional or local institutions. However the local institutions are barely functional, at least at the moment when there are no Ward Councilors, yet they are very significant if development is to trickle to the remotest part of the country,” observes a Master of Arts in Public Administration student at Chancellor College.

The student adds that as the situation is now, power is trickling from the state to the local institutions. “Essentially, Local Governments involve the distribution of functions at the local level between the levels of government, the means by which their personnel are appointed and recruited, and other administrative purposes. Now, in the absence of functional Local Governments, most of this is done by the state and it has absolute power over matters which would otherwise be handled by Local Government authorities.”

The implication is that in the presence of local assemblies, government’s power is limited. Perhaps this is why we only had local polls once during the Muluzi administration. Perhaps, again, this might be why we are not going to have local polls this year.

In most democratic states, within the leaders, there exists this fear of the state slowly becoming irrelevant and finally unpopular in the face of functional Local Governments. But, what matters most: the popularity of the state, or the welfare of the average citizen?

“With the local assemblies functioning fully, citizens are the ones who become more powerful. They unite behind their local authority and there is the likelihood of ‘defiance’ to the state. That is why many states hate Local Governments,” argues Joseph Manda, a political and social commentator based in Zomba.

One may argue that this has never been the case before, and there should be no need to surmise it now. To such an argument, Manda has this to say: “Well, that might be true, but we have to be aware that the more we penetrate into democracy, the more we learn new ideas concerning this system of government. Czechoslovakia got divided into Czech Republic and Slovakia because of the shift of power from the state to the people.”

Manda goes on to point out that as a matter of fact, decentralization to a certain extent weakens the effectiveness of a state on the international or global scene. “Such a state does not have sufficient machinery for entering into strategic alliances, and negotiating trade agreements. Of course, this cannot be the case in Malawi because as things are today, the Central Government will always be the most powerful,” he notes.

There are other people, still, who believe local polls are not that necessary in Malawi this time. They view them as an activity which will just drain government coffers when it has little impact on development.

“In the absence of this system, there is national unity. Central Government alone articulates the interests of the whole nation rather than those of sectional groups. Government addresses the common interests of the entire community. We are taken to be Malawians and our needs are duly addressed that way. So why should government spend millions of kwacha when we can do without these Local Governments?” argued a student at Chancellor College who did not want to be named.

Maybe this is just another reason why this government may never want local polls to be conducted. Perhaps, government put into consideration all these premises and discovered that the best thing to do is not to hold the elections. But, the question which will continue haunting the president together with the Electoral Commission is: why then don’t they come in the open and express their point so as to have a thorough analysis on the same from the public?

According to Chiweza, in the abstract of his Democratisation Conference 2009 paper titled Centralization and State Formation in Rural Malawi, “decentralisation is believed to contribute to state formation processes through the devolution of power to the lowest unit of society facilitating Local Government’s pursuit with the central state for a new shape of the state.” In this case, perhaps government is afraid of this devolution of power.

One important thing about Local Government is that it is more effective than Central Government in providing opportunities for citizens to participate in the political life of their community, just as Andrew Heywood observes in his Politics book.

He adds, “As power tends to corrupt, centralization threatens to turn government into a tyranny against the individual…. But decentralization comes in to redress the problem because it protects liberty by dispersing government power, thereby creating a network of checks and balances on the state as well as on itself.” Thus, it is only governments that want to clasp absolute power that tend to ignore local polls.

And, as Chancellor College political scientist Blessings Chinsinga notes: “It is well known that the country (Malawi) quickly degenerated into an authoritarian regime because it had weak or no constitutional safeguards to facilitate the development and entrenchment of the culture of constitutionalism.”

And, if local polls are not held as soon as possible, then Malawians may be forgiven for fearing that the country may finally degenerate into an authoritarian regime.

Above everything, it is a practical fact that decentralization results in the power of the state being limited, and this is what most governments in the world fear about this type of government. But to another extent, decentralization is the best way of governance for all people.

It is one way of incorporating every citizen in governance since their participation is duly considered from the grassroots all the way to the state. That is why we were upbeat that this year would not collapse without Malawians electing their Ward Councilors, their representatives in whom they can have the ultimate trust, since they will interact with them on a continuous and consistent basis.

After all, one of the arguments for the essence of local polls is that decentralization is effective for the reduction of poverty due to inherent opportunities for higher popular participation and increased efficiency in public service delivery. Yet, as analysts have observed before, the executive arm of government and Parliament may not be keen to have elected councilors for fear of competition for the legislators.

In fact, some time back, one legislator was quoted as saying: “Because councilors are in touch with the grassroots everyday, they may own development projects and may challenge MPs during general elections.”

Perhaps, this is just another of the numerous reasons why governments fear local assemblies, and would rather do without them or just tramp over them using unrealistic provisions.