In Malawi, mentions of Smartmatic technology firm evoke murmurs of elections management devices tagged rigging tools by doubters. However, the biometric voter identification (BVI) kits and results management and transmission system (RMTS) only exposed the long neglected potholes on the road to universal access to IT services, our Staff Writer JAMES CHAVULA reports:On September 13 around lunchtime, Lonjezo Mwenechanya’s phone vibrated a message alerting her to an event that had been on her mind for five years—the September 16 General Election.
“The polling day is a public holiday. Bring your voter certificate. If it’s lost, you will still be allowed to vote,” read the message from the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).
Come the D-day, the 19-year-old student woke up at 4.30am and made a 13-kilometre minibus ride from her university to vote at Nanjiriri Primary School in Blantyre City East.
From 5.45am, she spent two hours in a queue, dutifully grasping her voter certificate and national ID.
“I couldn’t wait to vote for the first time, a confirmation that I am a complete citizen,” she said.
For her, there was no room for error. If MEC electronic devices could not read the voter certificate, polling staff would identify her using the citizenship card.
However, she needed not worry about the devices some skeptical politicians denounced as rigging tools.
Pacing to the front, polling staff needed just a minute or two to scan her voter certificate and fingerprint using biometric voter identification kits to trace her name in the voters’ roll.
The first-time voter smiled broadly as she proceeded to ink her index finger and choose her preferred president, parliamentarian and ward councillor.
Lonjezo says she left the polling station certain that her vote would count despite the backlash against the digital kits.
She recalls: “I didn’t look at technology as a rigging tool, so I was OK with it and I recommend the use of reliable technology for credible elections.
“It was quick and easy. Things are changing and we cannot continue living in the past, relying on stacks of paper when the world is going digital. Change won’t wait for us.”
Days before polling, the Constitutional Court had rejected the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) petition to outlaw the use of electronic results transmission and management devices supplied by Smartmatic.
The then opposition party labelled the devices rigging tools citing reported glitches in some countries.
However, the court okayed MEC plans to use the doubted technology alongside manual tally sheets duly signed by monitors of all political parties and candidates.
‘Technology is good
Last month, MEC declared Peter Mutharika of DPP the winner, with about 57 percent of the vote.
Following the victory that shattered murmurs of a possible second-round vote, The Nation has asked DPP spokesperson Shadrac Namalomba for the governing party’s take on the technology they fiercely objected. We have also asked him what needs to improve for credible deployment of similar technology in future elections.
When asked about his experience, Mulanje district commissioner Macmillan Magomero says: “The use of electronic devices was a step forward in the handling of elections, but that should be accompanied with manual methods.
“Challenges will be there and they have to be worked on to perfect the system, but the glitches encountered during these election were mainly due to the incompetence of the workers, not the technology itself. With time, we will catch up.”
He was the district returning officer in Mulanje, a DPP stronghold.
Frank Chikopa, who voted at Thuchila Primary School in Mulanje West Constituency, the hiccups exposed sluggish investment in access to information technology for all, especially rural connectivity.
Having experienced delays caused by stuttering internet signal, he told The Nation: “We love technology and it makes life easier, but it will not perform wonders unless every community is connected and empowered to put digital tools to full use.
“The country doesn’t appear ready for a switch to technology. We need to address existing gaps, especially erratic network coverage and IT skills. Our internet connectivity remains low and unreliable, making trusted technologies hard and questionable.”
Chikopa finds it ironic that government delivers the ballots to all polling centres three days before the polling day, but finds some areas “hard to reach” when asked to deliver essential services, including reliable IT services.
“We should not just talk about technology when voting.”
Amid pockets of resistance against digital devices, Human Rights Defenders Coalition chairperson Gift Trapence asked MEC to ensure its staff were well-equipped to relay and manage election results with transparency, efficiency and credibility.
“Every technology is as good as the people who use it,” he said. “It’s not the machines that rig the elections, but the people behind those machines or paperwork.”
Blaming technology for things men and women do is not unprecedented. In 2013, authorities at Capital Hill blamed a computer-aided public finance management system for embezzlement, codenamed Cashgate. However, a European ambassador squarely blamed political elites, public servants and their business cronies who were party to the scandalous payments for goods and services not delivered.
Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum leader says the backlash against Smartmatic technologies mainly reflected existing distrust between electoral authorities and the electorate, including political actors.
He states: “In Malawi, elections have historically been marred by administrative flaws and legal disputes. So, the sudden introduction of Smartmatic devices without adequate public sensitisation understandably generated anxiety.
“So, the resistance was less about technology itself and more about how it was introduced—top-down, with minimal stakeholder engagement and inadequate communication.”
Kondowe says the rollout of new technology should be accompanied by wide consultations, robust voter education, layered vetting and open demonstrations to build public confidence.
Kondowe says the Smartmatic technology proved “generally functional” despite the concerns about how it was procured, potential manipulation and polling staff’s low know-how.
“The technology improved the speed and accuracy of some processes, particularly voter identification and results transmission in certain areas. It also offered an opportunity for Malawi to modernise its electoral management in line with international best practice.
However, the activist said operational gaps—especially delayed staff training, rural connectivity issues, failure to capture transferred voters and insufficient contingency planning—created room for misinformation and misconceptions.
“However, the technology is important. It’s part of the evolution towards more transparent and efficient elections even though its deployment fell short of the standard required to inspire widespread trust,” he said.
To Kondowe, continued use of electronic technologies is part of electoral reforms.
“Reverting to purely manual systems does not solve the underlying governance problems,” he says. “Instead, what’s needed is better preparation, broader stakeholder buy-in and incremental deployment. When used transparently and competently, such systems can strengthen integrity and efficiency.”
Concurring, National Initiative Civic Education Trust executive director Grey Kalindekafe says electoral technology—from voter registration to results management—was tainted by misinformation amid scanty voter education.
He states: “Civic education campaigns should be intensified to counter misinformation and promote public understanding of electoral technologies.
“Transparency in procurement processes is essential, including the public disclosure of vendor credentials and system capabilities. Stakeholder engagement must be broadened to include political parties, civil society organisations and media representatives in the selection and testing of technological tools.”
Kalindekafe says the country’s youthful electorate makes fast-evolving technologies unescapable. MEC reports that about 60 percent of voters in the recent tripartite elections were the youth, aged 18 to 35.
“Malawi should continue to embrace electronic technology in its electoral processes, albeit with strategic safeguards in place. The country’s electorate is increasingly youthful and tech-savvy, making the integration of technology a logical step toward enhancing transparency, speed and accountability. However, challenges remain—most notably, limited internet penetration, which stands at about 24 percent,” says Kalindekafe.
Backbone for elections
MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa says the biometric voter identification kits and results management system supplied by Smartmatic performed “impressively well” throughout the electoral process. At least 98 percent of the devices deployed nationwide functioned without major incident, he reports.
“Based on our post-election technical assessment, we can confidently state that the electronic devices achieved a performance rate of approximately 100 percent for results transmission.
A small percentage encountered technical issues, mostly related to connectivity in remote areas or battery drainage in polling stations without access to power. However, all these challenges were promptly addressed through our support teams on standby. No polling station failed to transmit results due to equipment failure.
Mwafulirwa is confident that “with continued investment in training, maintenance and network coverage, electronic technologies can serve as a reliable backbone for managing elections”.
This makes rising calls for universal access to IT, especially rural connectivity, a governance issue amid a gaping rural-urban divide.
Lonjezo scans a fingerprint on a voter identification device. l James Chavula
