Cdedi takes on Leader of Opposition

Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (Cdedi) has asked Leader of Opposition George Chaponda to explain why a private member’s motion on the use of national identity cards (IDs) in the registration for the 2025 General Elections was not moved.

Chaponda was set to table the motion during the fifth meeting of Parliament which adjourned sine die yesterday, however, he was not in the House when he was supposed to undertake the task.

In its letter addressed to Chaponda dated September 19 2024, Cdedi states that Malawians were waiting for the House to debate on whether the national ID should remain the sole identification for voter registration.

“Malawians are agitating for a review of some bad laws that if left unchecked, will deny eligible voters to exercise their right to vote. All this is due to the shambolic and unfair manner in which the National Registration Bureau [NRB] is handling the national IDs project whereby it’s being seen as a systematic move to benefit some individuals at the expense of the nation,” reads the letter.

According to the recently amended Section 12 of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections (PPLGE) Act, a person who is eligible to be registered as a voter in an election shall present in person to a registration officer, proof of his or her national registration issued by NRB.

However, the amended section has come under intense aggression with electoral stakeholders such as Malawi Law Society (MLS) and the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), describing it as a bad law, arguing it will disenfranchise the voters.

But despite all the evident challenges the NRB has insisted that every eligible voter, including the 2.2 million potential new voters, will have their national ID cards ahead of voter registration.

Chaponda, who is also member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje South West Constituency, did not pick up his mobile phone yesterday after several attempts.

But on July 3, 2024, the Leader of Opposition gave notice under Standing Order 122 of his intention to move the motion in Parliament to introduce alternative forms of identification to register and vote.

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is scheduled to start voter registration exercise on October 21 2024.

Initially, the exercise was planned to begin this month but the commission postponed it to pave the way for a pilot registration exercise which ended on Thursday.