Four months into the new year 2011, President Bingu wa Mutharika, a recent former African Union (AU) chairperson, directed that the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) which he closed last year 2010 in December should resume operations.

Presidential spokesperson, Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba, said the state expected operations to resume today, Monday, and that the local awaited Local Government Elections would take place this year.

"What happens is that the MEC and the president meets to decide on a date for holding of elections. Once this is done we are sure to hold the elections. My understanding is that all employees of the MEC will go back to work on Monday except for the few either arrested or fired," he told local radio station, Zodia Broadcasting Service (ZBS).

Mutharika who vowed never to reopen the electoral body until he was satisfied the MK1.4 billion that went missing was well investigating during an anti-corruption drive campaign early this year, reopened the body. A new figure has also emreged, that it was MK457 million that was misappropriated and not MK1.4 billion as earlier stated.

Civil society organisations and the general public have been calling for the LGE to take place.

"We will go to court if government does not proceed to create a conducive environment towards holding these important polls. We are happy that the offices have reopened but will ensure that elections do not fell," reacted Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN) chairperson, Aloysius Nthenda yesterday Sunday.

Malawi has not have local elections for many years, attracting questions on whether the constitutional requirement to have Councillors would ever be met. donors have provided support towards the local elections that keep being postponed, but opposition political parties earlier expressed disatisfaction with preparatory period.

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) all said they had lost interest to contest due to government's tricks and over handedness on the electoral body.

Analysts say government is afraid of the polls as they may work as a definite barometer to how Mutharika's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would fair come 2014 general elections.