By Pemphero Malimba:
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) says it will extend the first phase of the voter registration exercise, which is under way in some parts of the country.
This is contained in a statement which the commission’s chairperson Judge Annabel Mtalimanja has signed.
She says the move has been necessitated by the need to cover the period when citizen registration services were not available at voter registration centres.
The decision has been made after the High Court sitting in Blantyre ruled on October 25 2024 that all eligible voters who had no national identity (ID) card be registered by National Registration Bureau (NRB) officials at voter registration centres.
However, Mtalimanja says more information on the extension would be provided later.
“The specific dates and duration of this extension will be announced at the conclusion of phase 3,” Mtalimanja says.
She says phase two would continue as planned.
Phase 2 is scheduled for November 9 to 22 2024.
“It is the expectation of the commission that the NRB shall by then have taken steps to provide citizen registration services at all designated voter registration centres as prescribed in the order and directive of the court,” she indicates.
She says Mec will engage NRB officials to ensure that citizen registration processes are done as prescribed by the order and directive of the court.
“The commission remains committed to safeguarding the constitutional rights of all eligible citizens and upholding the principles of fair access to voter registration for the 2025 General Election.
“In alignment with the court’s directives, the commission emphasises its resolve to ensure that all necessary arrangements are in place for citizens who meet the eligibility criteria under Section 77 of the Constitution and have proof of eligibility as provided under Section 12 of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act to register as voters,” she points out.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), UTM, United Democratic Front (UDF) and Alliance for Democracy (Aford) gave Mec 14 days to address their concerns which, among other things, bordered on the need for the electoral body to suspend the first phase of the registration exercise.
At a press briefing held in Lilongwe, the political parties argued that the suspension would pave the way for discussions on challenged faced during the first phase of the exercise.
Meanwhile, Aford national publicity secretary Annie Maluwa has said they would comment much after being informed about the length of the extension.
“We have appreciated that the period has been extended but we are still waiting to hear from Mec on how many days have they extended the exercise. As you all know, the first phase is for 14 days; so, we are waiting for them to inform us about how many days they have added,” Maluwa said.
On his part, DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said the electoral body had not addressed their demands.
“The statement, to the effect that they will extend the voter registration exercise, does not, in any way, respond to the demands that we made at our press conference Thursday.
“Just to recall our demand, we said that they must, with immediate effect, suspend the voter registration exercise and that, immediately, they should call for a stakeholders’ meeting comprising all the political parties that will be participating in the 2025 elections.
From there, after discussing and looking at issues, challenges and solutions, the judgement of Judge Mandala Mambulasa, then we can go back and proceed with the voter registration exercise. These were our demands,” Namalomba said.
He said the political parties would wait for the expiry of the 14- day ultimatum and, thereafter, hold their planned demonstration.
“As you may lightly see from their statement, they are not responding to our demands. So, our stand remains. Within 14 days, if they don’t resolve the issues and fail to do what we asked them to do, then we will proceed with what we said we are going to do; holding demonstrations throughout. We will lock this country because they don’t want to listen to us,” Namalomba said.
UDF secretary general Genarino Lemani concurred with Namalomba.
“We wanted Mec to ensure that there is manual transmission of results. And the issue pertaining to Judge Mtalimanja’s resignation has not been addressed.
“We are not fully satisfied and we are still waiting for them to give us answers to all the demands that we requested. Only then can we say that we are satisfied or not,” Lemani said.
Mec is conducting the first phase of voter registration in Chitipa, Karonga, Karonga Town, Mzuzu City, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Salima, Dedza, Balaka, Machinga, Chiradzulu, Neno, Phalombe and Mulanje.
The commission planned to complete the voter registration exercise—that is, under its third phase—on December 11 2024.
The targeted areas were M’mbelwa (Mzimba), Lilongwe, Lilongwe City, Mangochi, Mangochi Municipality, Mwanza, Chikwawa and Nsanje.
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