Fake MEC voter cards on sale

There is a syndicate illegally producing counterfeit Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) voter registration cards at K1 500 (US$4) each, The Nation has established.

We have also confirmed that on June 20 2013, police in Mzuzu arrested two men in connection with the illegal voter card production.

The development—emerging roughly 10 months to the 2014 Tripartite Elections on May 18 2014—could raise fears that some people may exploit the fraud to rig elections by helping ineligible people to vote.

But MEC has dismissed such fears, saying its cards have tight security features.

The issue also arises at a time the voter registration exercise in preparation for the upcoming elections started on Monday this week.

Our investigations have shown that the syndicate uses the same laminating pouches as MEC’s.

Police have arrested a barber, Moses Nyati, 32, from Kayuni Village in Chief Kampingo Sibande’s area in Mzimba.

The accused, according to court records, allegedly posed as an Immigration officer on June 17 2013 at the Immigration Offices in Mzuzu and offered to help Mwayi Chumbi, 21, to have a voter registration card to enable her to obtain a passport.

Police have also arrested Mervin Nqumayo, 30, who comes from Thunduwike in the area of Senior Chief Mpherembe also in Mzimba.

Nqumayo, according to court records, is an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Mzuzu.

Apparently, Chumbi approached Nyati to process the voter registration card for her, which the latter is said to have done within a few hours on the same day.

Nqumayo, according to court records and police docket which we have seen, processed the MEC voter registration card number 480434698 for Chumbi on June 17 2013.

The card was backdated to 2008 when Chumbi was supposedly aged 16; but at that age, she was not even eligible to vote in Malawi elections and should not, therefore, have had the card.

Nyati and Nqumayo are answering two charges: making documents without authority contrary to Section 364 (a) of the Penal Code and obtaining money by false pretence contrary to Section 319 (1) of the Penal Code.

Police say they may bring in more charges against the duo.

The June 17 episode took place when Chumbi went to Immigration offices in Mzuzu to process a passport but she did not have any identity that the Immigration Department requires.

One of the IDs wanted was the MEC voter registration card.

As she paced along the corridors of Immigration offices pondering what to do, Chumbi met a relative—Davie Zgambo, 40—from Andireya Village in the area of Chief Mtwalo, Mzimba.

In the course of their discussion, Nyati eavesdropped and got closer to the two.

Zgambo and Nyati had not known each other before this day. Nyati had introduced himself to Zgambo as an Immigration officer at that time. He too, on this day, innocently introduced him to Chumbi as an Immigration officer, according to court documents.

Nyati took Chumbi to the district council offices, not far from the immigration offices, and brought her to the Ministry of Youth office where Nqumayo was.

The latter asked if she could fish out K1 500 to have voter registration card within a short time and she paid.

Chumbi narrates her ordeal in the court statement: “I wanted to process a passport at the Immigration Office. This was on 17 June 2013. I went to the Immigration Office where I was told by one of the Immigration officers that for me to process a passport, there was need to have an ID or letter from the T/A.

“While there, I met Davie Zgambo, a relative who asked me why I was there. I told him I was processing a passport. Then Mr. Zgambo asked a certain man and he introduced him to me as one of the Immigration officers.”

Chumbi said she was suspicious about the speed at which the process was done. Zgambo too became skeptical and wondered how MEC could be processing voter registration cards and at that place.

When he checked the card, he saw that the date was backdated to 2008 and he reported to MEC and MEC reported to police, according to Northern Region Police prosecutor handling the case, Assistant Superintendent Kingston Mwalughali.

The case is at the First Grade Magistrate’s Court in Mzuzu.

Nyati and Nqumayo first appeared in court on June 28 where they pleaded not guilty and were granted bail. They hired a legal firm, MN Patrick Associates.

Police did not find the equipment that was used to process the cards but when they searched Nqumayo’s office, they found three Immigration passport forms and two had passport-size photos for one person. These were tendered in court as part of the evidence.

The case was adjourned to July 1 2013, but MEC did not turn up. It was again postponed to July 16 2013 and, again, MEC did not come. It was then adjourned to yesterday for MEC to give its evidence. MEC failed to attend as well.

In an e-mail response last week, MEC’s director of media and public relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa also confirmed the fake voter registration card issue and said Nyati and Nqumayo are not its employees.

“There are two people who were arrested on suspicion that they were forging MEC voter registration certificates. The lamination porches [they used] are not specific to MEC. Anyone can go to the suppliers and buy them. Therefore, without evidence, it cannot be concluded that there was insider involvement in the case,” said MEC’s Mwafulirwa when asked why the commission’s documents were in the possession of people who did work at the elections body.

Mwafulirwa confessed that the fake ID looks like the original ones, “but it has wrong serial numbers”.

He was quick to add that the fake cards cannot be used to beat electoral safeguards.