By Hastings Yobe

EU Ambassador to Malawi, Rune Skinnebach Pic. By Kondwani Magombo _ Mana

Lilongwe, Mana:  Electoral Follow up Mission under the European Union (EU) has made a donation of 3 million Euros in contributions towards the management of presidential elections in 2025.

The donation which is in the tune at least K 3.11 billion  has been announced during a press briefing which was held on Thursday, at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

According to the EU Ambassador, Rune Skinnbech said European Union would continue to support Malawi via United Nations Development Programme  (UNDP) manages  basket fund which contributes to various areas of concern such as electoral development that contribute towards national development.

“We have pulled in at least 3 million euros to support the 2025 presidential elections, this is very important since we had a discussion with the Malawi chair of the electoral commission for both technical and budgetary support,” he said.

Skinnbech added that, “Malawi is doing relatively very well to ensure that its electoral functions are transparent, genuine and competitive, the 2019 elections proved the patience Malawians have and also the strength by the responsible institutions.”

EU Chief of Mission Miroslav Poche said the purpose of the follow up team EU deployed on September 20, 2022 was to asses and report on the degree of 24 recommendations that EU EOM made.

“Some of the recommendations would entail a legislative process, others are connected to the way elections are administered and are rather technical or procedural in nature,

The recommendations were made to various electoral stake holders to help improve the transparency, inclusiveness as well as integrity of elections in Malawi,” he said.

 Poche said that the EU was pleased to note that some recommendations made by the EOM have been implemented, for instance the harmonising of the constitution and electoral laws with regard to the required age of a voter which was supposed to be 18 for eligibility and the operation of access to information law.

He emphasized that not all 24 recommendations would be addressed but a few might be addressed before 2025 elections.

The 2019 General Election had some anomalies which were taken to court and a re-election was ordered.

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