Kelvin Gwaza,40, from the area of Traditional Authority Zilakoma in Nkhatabay who at this age does not really know the roles of a parliamentarian and that of a ward councilor.
For him both the Councilor and a Member of Parliament are there to initiate development activities in an area hence promote their political ideologies and make that particular party popular.
He cited the gap that existed between the period that Malawi had ward councilors and the time it did not have as one of the reasons he could not understand pretty well the difference of the two. Apart from that, Gwaza says lack of Civic education has also been a set back to his understanding on the roles and duties of a Ward Councilor and a Member of Parliament.
“Of course during the period that Malawi had ward councilors, I noticed that a lot of development initiatives were ably seen with our naked eyes because we were well represented at the district council. You name projects like the school construction, rehabilitation of boreholes and construction of bridges were simply managed by a Counselor unlike the period we had no counselors,” said Gwaza
He added, “ despite the good work out of these councilors ,however there were some challenges as a Member of Parliament for that particular time would not want to see the councilor performing well in initiating development activities in fear of being over-shadowed if his/her councilor decides to contest as a Member of Parliament as well”.
According to Gwaza, the development negatively affected the flow of development due to the poor working relationship between the Councilor and a Member of Parliament.
However, it is against this background that the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), an arm of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) has embarked of a Capacity Building of Local Governance Structures towards 2014 Tripartite Elections Project where it is challenging the Citizenry to elect right candidates during the 20 May elections.
The National CCJP Project Officer, Beatrice Mateo Mkanda said the project is also aimed at addressing the challenges as described by Gwaza on the understanding of the roles and duties of a Ward Councilor and a Parliamentarian.
“I would say, our purpose as CCJP is to ensure election processes that are issue based leading to better choices of accountable and responsive leaders who become drivers of people-centered development processes through and after May 20 Tripartite elections, “said Mkanda during a meeting she organized with members of the Area Development Committees (ADC’s) and Village Development Committees (VDC’s) in Dowa which is one of the districts ear-marked to benefit from the year long project.
Mkanda said the project which started in August 2013 and will end in July this year is being funded by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) has already built the capital of communities in Nkhatabay, Zomba and Dowa for them (communities) to properly identify and prioritize local development and service delivery needs for the aspiring candidates to commit themselves in addressing them.
She said the approach will assist communities to generate issues for development that they will use to debate with ward councilor candidates and MP candidates hence facilitate the issue-based campaign moving away from a politically oriented campaign that is devoid of people-centered issues.
Mkanda also said the project is building the capacity of Community groups to understand and analyze the formal and informal political processes-with special emphasis on the ward councilor elections-and structures that control how development and service delivery projects are allocated.
“Through this, community groups would realize the potential and spaces of engagement including legal and policy prescribed opportunities in seeking the fulfillment of their right to development,’’ said Mkanda
Above all, Mkanda said most Malawian Citizenry are most aware of the roles of a ward councilor and a Member of Parliament hence am initiative which is mobilizing the illegible voters to seriously engage their candidates and evaluate issue positions and campaign promises in the context of local priorities.
According to Mkanda, this will enable the citizens to elect into leadership positions candidates that understand and share the developmental vision of citizens and in so doing, such leaders would be responsive and accountable to the community and citizens prioritized needs.
Meanwhile, Traditional Authority Msakambewa of Dowa has commended CCJP for coming up with the initiative which according to him, will help enlighten his subjects and in the end have an informed decision towards the May 20 Tripartite elections.
“Let me tell you that we have not received the much need development from our duty bearers especially our Members of Parliament obviously because there has been a gap with the absence of the ward councilors hence the reason I would commended the Tripartite elections that we should have the local structures in place,” said Inkosi Msakambewa
He said his area is one of the under-developed one and with the coming in of ward councilors, he believes development initiatives will be taken to another level. He was however, quick to challenge CCJP and other organizations mandated to carry out civic education to continue elaborating on the roles of a councilor and a Member of Parliament saying the conflicting roles have negatively affected the flow of development in the previous regime Malawi had them all.
The District Elections Officer for Dowa, Daniel Chibwe has since attributed the role played by CCJP saying it will lessen their job as an electoral body to civic-educate the voters on the roles of councilors and Parliamentarians.
According to the CCJP Tripartite Elections flyers, the following are some of the roles and duties of a ward councilor; representing the ward at the district council, presenting the challenges of people in a ward to the district council and understanding the needs and wants of people in a ward.
While for a Member of Parliament, lobbying for adequate funding at a district council, representing the constituency in parliament and informing government of the challenges his/her constituents are facing are some of the roles and duties.
The National Democratic Institute is financing CCJP to the tune of $100,000 for the one year period that this project will be implemented.