By Pemphero Malimba:
Opposition political parties in the country have urged the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) and the National Registration Bureau (NRB) to address inefficiencies surrounding the conduct of civil registration and the upcoming supplementary voter registration exercise.
The political parties— Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), United Democratic Front (UDF), People’s Party (PP), UTM and the Alliance for Democracy (Aford)—have made the call through a statement signed by their respective secretaries general (SGs).
The SGs are Peter Mukhito of DPP, Generino Lemani of UDF, Ben Chakhame of PP, Willet Kalonga of UTM and Linda Limbe of Aford.
Among other points, the parties say they have observed that some eligible voters failed to register during the civil registration exercise, which NRB carried out from December 29, 2024 to January 4, 2025.
This is said to be due to challenges such as stock-outs of registration forms, long distances to registration centres due to the clustered approach followed by NRB and instances where generators at some centres ran out of fuel for several days.
“The five-day registration period in phase 1 councils is insufficient to accommodate all eligible voters particularly in rural areas with logistical and transportation challenges,” the statement reads.
The parties have further called on the electoral body to “adhere to legal directives and best practice by ensuring compliance with court rulings, constitutional mandates and international standards which include independent audit of the registration process.”
The parties have further called for the use of manual transmission of results in the elections scheduled for September 16, 2025.
“We need manual transmission of results due to identified vulnerabilities in electronic management devices and other electronic gadgets and systems,” the statement says.
The opposition parties have also challenged NRB to, among other things, release data for Malawians who registered after October 21, 2024 but have yet to receive their national identity (ID) cards.
Meanwhile, Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa has disclosed that the commission will comment on the matter once it has been served with the statement.
However, the supplementary voter registration exercise, which was expected to begin on today, has been postponed.
It primarily targets eligible voters who presented themselves at voter registration centres and applied for civil registration with NRB but were not issued their unique national ID numbers by the close of the voter registration period and consequently, were unable to register as voters.
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