By Cathy Maulidi:
Opposition political parties have reacted with indignation to news that a Lilongwe City man managed to register twice in the ongoing voter registration exercise.
This follows an announcement by police in Lilongwe that they have arrested Wiseman Enock for allegedly registering more than once at the same centre. Enoch’s data was captured twice at Msambeta Primary School, which is one of the registration centres. The governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has since called for transparency on the issue.
MCP publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila said there was also a need make sure that the path was cleared for free and fair elections.
“We appreciate that this anomaly has been identified and we are calling on Mec to make sure that this is resolved as soon as possible so that Malawi can have a credible and fair election.
“Mec should look at this as an opportunity to clear anything that is erroneous. We want a good election. This is why we are busy everyday campaigning,” Kabwila said.
This has riled the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which, through spokesperson Shadric Namalomba, has described the development as unfortunate.
“These are issues that we, opposition parties, have been raising. First of all, we would like to applaud the police who apprehended the man. We are seriously worried. How do we trust this process of registration? This is why we called for independent auditors to audit the process and ensure that we don’t have these duplicates in the voters’ roll,” Namalomba said.
On his part, UTM president Dalitso Kabambe said “what has happened is very worrisome”.
Kabambe added that the Lilongwe City incident had compromised the integrity of the Smartmatic system and the whole electoral process.
“One wonders if this is an isolated incident or it’s a rampant exercise. The question that is coming to mind is, is there an audit being carried out to clear such occurrences? Furthermore, we hear of issues pertaining to misplaced photos, where there are allegations that, in some incidences, data [on national identity cards] and photos are not matching. We recommend that the integrity of the process and system be evaluated,” Kabambe said
And on his part, People’s Development Party president Kondwani Nankhumwa said what has happened is an indication that the system is not 100 percent foolproof.
“This is not on. What is stopping the machine from recognising double registration right away at the registration centre? Why is the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) waiting for the information to reach the server first? To me, this is just a tip of the iceberg. A lot of things could be happening to electoral processes,” Nankhumwa said.
However, Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said in a statement that Enock managed to register twice because the second registration was done on a different gadget from the first one.
“The registration machine is designed to detect and prevent multiple registrations on the same gadget, whether it is online or offline. If Mr Enoch had attempted to register a second time using the same machine, the system would have flagged him immediately, and the registration would have been rejected,” Mwafulirwa said
The commission has further said while it was possible for someone to register multiple times during the field registration process because they are doing it on different devices, such instances are identified and resolved during the de-duplication process.
“Immediately the data reaches the server, duplicates are identified. The commission investigates each case and takes appropriate measures. The system uses national ID number and advanced biometric technology, including fingerprints, to detect and remove duplicate records,” he said.
The commission has since assured electoral stakeholders that its system is not porous but robust and capable of detecting duplicates, ensuring that the final voter register is free of multiple entries.
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