Cost-conscious SA trims Ramaphosa’s inauguration
Campaigns for the elections, which analysts say will be closely contested, have intensified with candidates crisscrossing the country seeking votes.
A statement from Malawi’s State House said the cabinet had been dissolved and the president would assume all ministerial duties.
This is in line with the country’s constitution that requires the cabinet to be disbanded ahead of the polls. President Mutharika is facing competition from six other candidates including two of his own ministers. Vice President Saulos Chilima is vying on a United Transformation Movement ticket while immediate former Health Minister Atupele Muluzi is the flag bearer of the United Democratic Front party.
Meanwhile, Malawi’s Electoral Commission has begun distributing ballot materials to polling stations ahead of next Tuesday’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
The materials will be moved from the capital, Lilongwe, to more than 5, 000 polling stations across the country.
The commission says slightly more than six million people have registered for the vote. The process will use a mix of manual and electronic methods.
While the voting will be paper-based, the transmission and final tally of the ballots will be electronic.
This is the first time the country will use this system.
Commission chairperson Jane Ansah has told the BBC that the country is well prepared for the elections, which analysts say will be closely contested.
"We have been preparing for a while now and we can assure the country that we will be holding a credible process," she told the BBC.
She also addressed concerns raised by some politicians that the poll could be rigged. "All we have heard so far are just words and no concrete proof. But we believe that the system we have put in place is foolproof and we expect the election to be rigging-free.”
Malawians go to the polls on May 21 to elect a president, parliamentarians and local councillors. Dlamini-Zuma said the budget cut had to do with the current economic climate in South Africa.
“We all know that there is an economic difficulty in this country, and our budget we are going to spend in this inauguration is more than a R100m less,” Dlamini-Zuma told reporters in the Union Buildings’ media room.
While not revealing the exact allocated budget, Dlamini-Zuma said that they wouldn’t be spending more than R120m, and that the 2014 inauguration of Zuma had cost around R240m.
In line with cutting costs, the venue for the inauguration has also changed from the Union Buildings Amphitheatre to Loftus Versfeld Stadium, which is also in Tshwane.