Don’t panic,NRB assures

Calm down! That is the response from National Registration Bureau (NRB) which has assured that every eligible voter, including the 2.2 million potential new voters, will have their national identity (ID) cards ahead of voter registration.

NRB’s position is in reaction to concerns and fears of voter disenfranchisement ahead of the September 16 2025 General Elections due to the slow pace of the national ID registration exercise. The national ID is the prerequisite for one to register as a voter.

In a written response to a questionnaire yesterday, NRB spokesperson Norman Fulatira said NRB has registered 11.8 million eligible Malawians aged 16 and above. The eligible voting age is 18 and above.

He said: “By June 2023, NRB had registered 10.4 million eligible Malawians [16 years and above].The national ID outreach registration exercise which commenced in June, 2023 has added at least 1.4 million new registrants.”

Fulatira said NRB is aware that during the national ID outreach registration exercise some Malawians may not have been captured in the register and has since planned a mop up exercise to start in June 2024.

He said: “This is soon after the completion of the eighth phase of the current outreach registration exercise. The mop up registration exercise will target all the districts across 5 002 centres in the country.

“The registration exercise targeted all the districts in the country in a phased approach. To date, seven of the eight phases have been implemented. The eighth phase is underway in Lilongwe and Blantyre cities and will finish on May 28 2024 [Wednesday this week].”

In an earlier interview, Youth and Society (YAS) executive director Charles Kajoloweka said NRB has significantly struggled to meet its statutory obligations and major structural challenges include poor funding by the government.

He said: “The 2.2 million new voters reaffirm the fact that the 2025 Elections will also be decided by the youth. This new powerhouse will require significant investment to mobilise them to participate, given clear indications of potential voter apathy.

“Further, the 2.2 million figure also presents 2025 as a youth power year. It’s up to the youth to use their demographic power.

“But the NRB’s poor performance has lowered public trust and confidence in the registration process, despite government assurances to improve performance.”

Besides calling for adequate funding for NRB, Kajoloweka said there is need to bolster coordination between NRB and Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC)to ensure that quality information is given to the public.

Human Rights Defenders Coalition chairperson Gift Trapence said the slow pace was a serious attack on democracy which will undermine and violate the right to vote for many Malawians.

He said: “We will not tolerate NRB to deny Malawians their right to vote. NRB through the line ministry should make sure that resources are available so that citizens are able to get registered easily.

“New eligible voters have a big bearing and influence. This is a new generation that is well informed and will vote based on the policies that are or will uplift their social economic status like on employment and education.”

In a separate interview, electoral politics expert Ernest Thindwa said the pace of issuance of national IDs casts a doubt on whether all eligible citizens in need of a card, including those who will turn 18 by voting day, will have one.

“While IDs are necessary in guarding against ineligible citizens to cast a vote, legitimate persons should not be denied the exercise of voting rights on the basis of lack of the ID which the state will have failed to provide.

“Given existing political context which has shaped the voters’ electoral preference in a fashion where voting patterns along ethno-regional fault lines are over pronounced, the youth surge may not necessarily have a deterministic effect on the direction of electoral victory,” he said.

On his part, governance pundit George Chaima said NRB should step up the game, fearing that the process will be slow and end up having low numbers of people registered which may eventually affect voting turnout.

On the political front, United Democratic Front (UDF) spokesperson Yusuf Mwawa observed that NRB has not been consistent in its operations, wondering whether it was by design, default or both.

 He said: “The dubious dealings are raising suspicions of voter registration manipulation to give advantage to a preferred region in favour of a targeted political party.

“At the same time, we are closely monitoring the efficiency of NRB, to make sure our party members are not deliberately left out in acquiring a national ID.”

Democratic Progressive Party spokesperson Shadric Namalomba urged NRB to reduce distances between centres by increase the number of staff.

He said: “If this does not improve by the time MEC rolls out registration of voters in September, it should consider joining MEC as they register voters to do side by side registration.”

Earlier, the Malawi Law Society recommended that policy makers and reformists should consider practical ways of ensuring that the purpose and intent of Section 77 of the Constitution is not impaired by the statutory requirement of the national IDs to vote.

MEC projects that the country will have 10 957 490 eligible voters. The new figure is up from 8.7 million in 2019 as indicated in the Population and Housing Census of 2018.

The projected figures show that the Central Region will have the highest number of eligible voters at 4 827 703 followed by the South with 4 706 285 and the North with 1 423 502.