By Brenda Kayo:
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec)’s announcement that 7.2 million people have registered to vote during the September 16 elections has not gone down well with some political parties, whose officials have claimed that the electoral commission systematically “suppressed” would-be voters.
This comes at a time Malawians are planning to vote in this year’s Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections.
Mec Chief Elections Officer Andrew Mpesi indicated in statement that those registered represent 65.7 percent of the population of eligible voters that the National Statistical Office (NSO) projected.
“In comparison with the total number of people in the councils aged 18 years and above in 2025, which according to the NSO is 10,957,490, the number of registered voters in all three phases and supplementary voter registration represents 65.7 percent of the projected population,” Mpesi said.
In a separate interview, Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa indicated that 24,078 people had registered during the supplementary voter registration exercise.
He said out of the 7.2 million people, 3,087,563 are male, representing 42.9 percent, and 4,113,342 are female, representing 57.7 percent.
Mwafulirwa said the figures were preliminary and that the public should exercise caution on their usage.
He said the figures might change considering that the data had not been cleaned.
“The commission wishes to emphasise that these figures are preliminary and that the public must exercise caution on their use since the data has not been cleared . We will be working to clear those that tried to register twice and, for that, the figures will change,” Mwafulirwa said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has expressed dissatisfaction with the voter registration exercise.
It claims that Mec and the National Registration Bureau (NRB) “deliberately suppressed” people from registering.
DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito said the final registration figure of 7.2 million was “not a true reflection of would-be voters” in Malawi.
“Our party’s stand is that both Mec and NRB deliberately suppressed people from registering. Mec did not put much effort into voter sensitisation issues, let alone the voter registration exercise.
“The coming in of the NRB in the registration exercise has made it more difficult for people to acquire the national identity (ID) card, which allows them to register. NRB deliberately suppressed a lot of people from acquiring the national ID by creating unnecessary excuses, thereby directly affecting the voter registration exercise,” Mukhito said.
He also alleged that Mec officials deliberately switched off machines at “crucial times”.
“Mec, on the last day of phase three of the registration exercise, deliberately left so many people unregistered by switching off their elections management devices at 16:00 hours,” Mukhito said.
He said DPP would have loved it if voters’ registration exercises were “fairly done” to allow Malawians of voting age to register and be ready to choose who they want to lead the country come September 16 2025.
On his part, People’s Party secretary general Ben Chakhame faulted Mec for the way it handled voter registration exercises.
Chakhame said the electoral body denied eligible voters the opportunity to register and vote.
“Mec has satisfied what they wanted by denying eligible voters [a chance] to register. They have been doing all sorts of things to register [a] lesser [number of] voters. We will still push so that those that have been denied the right to vote should vote,” Chakhame said.
Taking his turn, Chisankho Watch Chairperson, Bishop Gilford Matonga, said it was encouraging that although the figures of registered voters were not satisfactory, the number of people who had registered had increased.
Matonga said it was unfortunate that less men than women registered.
“We are glad that they extended the days so that others who did not register could be given an opportunity to vote,” Matonga said.
NRB officials were not readily available for a comment yesterday.
However, Principal Secretary for NRB Mak Sambo said recently that the bureau was adhering to the court ruling that compelled them to register would-be voters who initially failed to register due to the absence of a national ID.
He said that was the reason NRB staff were available at all voter registration centres.
During the first phase of the registration exercise, 2 224 307 people registered in 14 councils, with 2.4 million people registering in the second phase.
The third phase saw 2.5 million people registering to vote
There were 6,859,570 registered voters during the 2019 Tripartite Elections and June 23 2020 court-ordered presidential election.
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