Malawi Electoral Commission’s (MEC) preliminary voter registration figures of the first phase show 2 224 307 people registered in the exercise targeting 14 councils.
The councils include Balaka, Chiradzulu, Chitipa, Dedza, Karonga, Machinga, Mulanje, Neno, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Salima, Phalombe, Mzuzu and Karonga.
MEC chief elections officer Andrew Mpesi said in a statement on Friday that 891 777 are men while 1 332 530 are women, representing 40 percent and 60 percent of the total number of registered voters, respectively.
He said: “In comparison with the total number of people in the councils aged 18 years and above in 2025, which according to the National Statistical Office is 3 423 066 [1 573 579 male and 1 849 487 female], the number of registered voters under Phase 1 represents 65 percent of the projected population.”
But Mpesi emphasised that the figures are preliminary and that the public must exercise caution on their usage.
He said the figures might change considering that the data has not been cleaned.
“Disaggregated by gender, 56.7 percent of the male population has registered while 72 percent of the projected female population has registered,” said Mpesi.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the voter registration exercise started yesterday.
It targets Nkhata Bay, Rumphi and Likoma in the Northern Region; Kasungu District and Kasungu Municipal, Dowa, Mchinji and Ntcheu in the Central Region.
In the Southern Region, the second phase targets Zomba District and Zomba City, Blantyre District and Blantyre City, Thyolo District and Luchenza Municipal Council.
The registration exercise is in readiness of the September 16 2025 General Elections.
For the first time, MEC is registering voters who have the national identity (ID) as mandated by law.
Section 4 (12) of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Act states that a person shall be eligible to be registered as a voter in an election and needs to have a valid national ID which shall act as proof of eligibility.
But in an interview with Nation on Sunday, National Registration Bureau (NRB) spokesperson Norman Fulatira said while having a national ID is important, it will not be a hindrance for individuals to register with MEC to vote in 2025.
He said apart from a valid national ID, an expired national ID and an NRB system generated slip bearing a national ID number will be accepted by MEC as proof to register in the voter registration exercise.
Said Fulatira: “Having said this, NRB would like to assure the public that every citizen who registered with NRB will have their card for use in all other daily transactions, including the issue of voter registration.”
Opposition political parties, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), United Democratic Front (UDF), UTM Party and Alliance for Democracy (Aford) have alleged that NRB wants to rig the elections in favour of the Malawi Congress Party.
DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito wrote NRB in August 2024, requesting for information relating to issuance of national IDs between June 2020 and August 2024 amid the vote rigging allegations.
When their request was not attended to, the former governing party threatened to drag NRB to court.
