Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has assured that no registered voter is missing or deleted from the voters’ roll and urged citizens, including political parties to desist from facilitating misinformation.
MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja said this at a press briefing in Lilongwe last evening to provide an update on voters’ transfer, inspection of the voters’ register and the revised electoral calendar.
In response to what seemed to be a question of interest from journalists, she insisted that no name was missing and that any information to the contrary must be dismissed as misinformation.
Mtalimanja, a judge of the High Court of Malawi, said: “Get it from us that no name is missing or deleted from the register. I am happy you said it was just a claim and it must remain as such, but what we are saying is that we are transparent. If people choose to create mistrust then that is another issue.”
Two weeks ago, Leader of Opposition in Parliament George Chaponda told the National Assembly that his office received reports that up to one million names were missing from the voters’ register, including that of MEC Commissioner Francis Kasaila.
Coincidentally, Kasaila is the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominee in the electoral body and was also present during yesterday’s presser.
On why there was so much mistrust from opposition political parties even when they have a representation in the commission, Mtalimanja said commissioners work as one and not as representatives of political parties.
She said there was no need for opposition political parties to request an audit on the register as the scheduled voters’ inspection will take care of this.
Mtalimanja said 6 288 registration centres out of the total 6 331 recorded zero variance while 43 centres had issues which affected 2 563 names.
“This variance occurred because the 2 563 records were not uploaded onto the database and, therefore, did not form part of the preliminary voter registration statistics published by the commission,” she said, adding that the affected voters have since been added, bringing the total to 7 216 899 registered voters.
While indicating that the voters’ transfer exercise was successful nationwide, Mtalimanja said 19 registered voters had difficulties to transfer but the commission has set April 15 2025 to allow for these transfers.
During the briefing, MEC also shared a revised calendar highlighting that from June 10 to July 5 candidates will be collecting nomination papers, among other events.
