By Pemphero Malimba, Innocent Kalikokha & Blessings Gondwe:
The supplementary voter registration exercise, which the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) is carrying out, started on a slow pace in some centres in the country.
For instance, in Lilongwe City, the exercise was marred by low turnout Tuesday.
This was also the case in Mangochi and Chikwawa districts.
Mec is conducting the exercise to cater for people who registered with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) between October 21 2024 and January 4 2025.
The Daily Times visited some centres in Lilongwe City, where it found that turnout was not impressive.
Our crew also found that those who registered with NRB but not within the targeted period were being turned back.
At Mvama Local Education Authority (LEA) registration centre, for example, we found that, by 11 o’clock in the morning, about three people out of about 100 people who are targeted to register at the centre had registered.
At Bwaila Secondary School registration centre, no one had registered by 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
Mvama LEA registration supervisor Patrick Kaunde expressed optimism that people would turn up to register.
“We are expecting people to come; maybe they are targeting to come to register in the afternoon or tomorrow [today].
“Currently, most of the people who are coming here are those that registered before 21 October 2024,” Kaunde said.
One of the women who was turned back for possessing a national identity card that was registered before October 21 2024 and opted for anonymity said she was disappointed to learn that she was not eligible to register.
She said she had hoped that after the extension of the voter registration exercise, she would register to vote.
But one of the people who registered at the centre, Joseph Moyo said he was excited for registering in the exercise.
“I am happy now that I have registered because I will be able to vote for my preferable candidate,” Moyo said.
In Nsanje, there was low turnout.
The situation was made worse by heavy rains.
For instance, at Nyamadzere Model Primary School, traffic was low.
In Mzimba, the exercise started on a low note as a small number of people, sometimes as few as two, turned up at centres, with other centres yet to register a single soul.
For instance, at Endindeni Primary School registration centre in Mzimba Hora Constituency, no one had registered while at Eswazini centre, only one person had registered by 12pm on Tuesday.
Mec supervisor at Endindeni, Hillen Jeka, said registration was for those that registered with NRB but did not get their numbers due to limited time or technical hitches.
On his part, Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said the exercise had started well.
“We have opened all centres that we wanted to open. So, our appeal is for everyone who registered with the NRB [National Registration Bureau] from October 21 2024 to January 4 2025 to go and register,” Mwafulirwa said
He was quick to point out that there was no need to expect long ques as the exercise targets a few people.
“This exercise is not targeting anybody who failed to register during the voter registration exercise, neither is it an extension to the voter registration exercise, but the commission has contributed to this exercise for the purposes of fulfilling what the judgement of October 25 2024 said—[to the effect that] all those that presented themselves at registration centres, if they are not registered with the NRB, should be assisted to register with NRB and, thereafter, register as voters,” he said.
Meanwhile, Public Affairs Committee (Pac) spokesperson Bishop Gilford Matonga has attributed the low turnout to inadequate civic education for the exercise.
“The stakeholders themselves have not been in the forefront of encouraging people to go and register.
“Every political leader, every church leader, civil society organisations—we all need to hold hands to encourage people to go and register. It is very, very important,” Matonga said.
He also faulted the criteria used to select people to register during the exercise.
“The bracket in which the Malawi Electoral Commission is requesting people to go and register is a little bit restrictive. You are only talking about people that registered with NRB between October [2024] and January [2025] and then excluding people that registered with NRB before that,” he said.
He, therefore, challenged electoral stakeholders to enhance awareness campaigns aimed at encouraging people to register to vote.
“We need to find a mode of media where we can communicate to Malawians to go and register, especially those that are eligible to vote. If you do not register, I don’t think the Malawi Electoral Commission will extend this registration period,” he said.
Meanwhile, Centre for Democracy and Elections (Cede) has called for the extension of the voter registration exercise.
“Cede is calling for the extension of voter registration and not supplementary voter
registration. The proposed extension should be open to all eligible registrants in all
councils in Malawi. The Constitution permits and grants them the right to register and vote, with or without the recent court ruling.
‘The 60 days before voting, which is the cut-off point for voter registration, are still far away. Therefore, Mec has no valid reason to bar some eligible Malawians from registering,” the organisation’s team leader, Aloisious Nthenda, said Tuesday.
The first phase of the supplementary voter registration exercise—which targets phase three district councils of the initial voter registration, and these include Mzimba, Lilongwe City, Lilongwe District, Mangochi, Mwanza, Chikwawa and Nsanje—ends today.
Mec is conducting the supplementary voter registration exercise in three phases targeting 271,000 people from January 21 to February 3 2025.
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