malawi election III: the aftermath
the newspapers have all started to dissect the good, the bad and ugly (of which there was very little) of last tuesday's elections.
apparently one of the major shortfalls in the vote counting process was "problems with arithmetic, as they could not add up the numbers to balance the figures".
who are these mathematically-challenged "they" you may ask?
the majority of polling centers for the election were in primary and secondary schools... it was the head teachers (head masters/mistresses for those who went to school as long ago as i did) of these schools who were automatically allocated responsibility for ballot tabulation.
fingers crossed the government does something about ensuring teachers are, at the very least, numerate before they get thrust upon inquiring minds... still, they'll have to find the money for the two-week old fleet of 30-odd mercedes before they consider more trival matters like basic education.
while the article is a sad indictment of the malawian education system... it also made me giggle in a "comedy of errors" kinda way:
Observers, District Commissioner's staff, reporters and police officers had to intervene and help the teachers on the calculations in some cases. "Are you really teachers? You cannot even add this simple arithmetic. How can we trust you to teach our children", shouted one observer. As negative comments were being made, Mwanza District Commissioner Paul Kalilombe was seen shaking his head in frustration. "Please can you just assist them with the additions so that we should continue," Kalilombe pleaded.
Apart from the problems with additions, some officers mistakenly locked tally forms inside boxes containing ballot papers when transferring the materials to the DC's office. "We just have to break the seals and retrieve the documents and then you can write reports in the logbook on why the seals have been changed", Kalilombe advised.
In some instances where mistakes were made and the form had to be re-written, the setback was the unavailability of monitors to sign for the documents.
apparently one of the major shortfalls in the vote counting process was "problems with arithmetic, as they could not add up the numbers to balance the figures".
who are these mathematically-challenged "they" you may ask?
the majority of polling centers for the election were in primary and secondary schools... it was the head teachers (head masters/mistresses for those who went to school as long ago as i did) of these schools who were automatically allocated responsibility for ballot tabulation.
fingers crossed the government does something about ensuring teachers are, at the very least, numerate before they get thrust upon inquiring minds... still, they'll have to find the money for the two-week old fleet of 30-odd mercedes before they consider more trival matters like basic education.
while the article is a sad indictment of the malawian education system... it also made me giggle in a "comedy of errors" kinda way:
Observers, District Commissioner's staff, reporters and police officers had to intervene and help the teachers on the calculations in some cases. "Are you really teachers? You cannot even add this simple arithmetic. How can we trust you to teach our children", shouted one observer. As negative comments were being made, Mwanza District Commissioner Paul Kalilombe was seen shaking his head in frustration. "Please can you just assist them with the additions so that we should continue," Kalilombe pleaded.
Apart from the problems with additions, some officers mistakenly locked tally forms inside boxes containing ballot papers when transferring the materials to the DC's office. "We just have to break the seals and retrieve the documents and then you can write reports in the logbook on why the seals have been changed", Kalilombe advised.
In some instances where mistakes were made and the form had to be re-written, the setback was the unavailability of monitors to sign for the documents.