There are growing calls for Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to redo all the three phases of the voter registration ahead of the September 16 2025 General Election because the exercise continues to face challenges.
This time around, civil society organisations (CSOs) accredited by MEC to conduct civic and voter education observe that some registration centres still have no National Registration Bureau (NRB) officers to register people without national identity (ID) cards.
The three are Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) and Mtendere Elections Support Network.
In an interview yesterday, IPI project officer Praise Mwenegamba said out of the third phase registration centres the CSO monitored in Mwanza last week, at least eight centres had no NRB biometric registration kits.
He said: “Looking at some of the hiccups encountered in the second phase and third phase, we still recommend that all the phases should be redone.
“Despite the court ruling which made clear that NRB should be found in all the centres and register all eligible voters, this has not been satisfactory to us because there are so many centres where people are failing to register with NRB.”
In separate interviews, Mesn coordinator Andrew Kachaso and Mtendere Elections Support Network chairperson Maynard Nyirenda—whose institution is a network of 44 organisations—noted that the absence of NRB equipment is widespread and asked MEC to act swiftly.
Said Nyirenda: “Even if just one person was denied their right to vote, it would still have a serious impact on the whole electoral process because somebody can challenge the election results to say they were not given an opportunity to vote.”
On his part, Kachaso said the calls to redo all the phases of the voters’ registration are genuine as some individuals have failed to register.
Commenting on the concerns, MEC communications officer Richard Mveriwa acknowledged that the commission has received a number of requests to consider extending and redoing the voters’ registration exercise.
He said the commission is reviewing the requests before coming up with a final decision.
“At some point the commission shall announce its determination regarding the concerns that we have received so far regarding phase two and phase three of the voter registration,” said Mveriwa.
Last month MEC announced that it would extend the first phase of the voter registration exercise after completing the third phase to capture all eligible voters.
This followed the October 25 2024 High Court ruling that ordered NRB to accommodate all individuals who want to get the national ID crucial for the voter registration exercise.
