Electoral stakeholders have asked the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to extend the second phase of the voter registration exercise due to national identity (ID) registration challenges which continue to frustrate the process.
But the commission has outrightly ruled out any extension of the second phase of the voter registration exercise for the September 16 2025 General Elections.
The second phase of voter registration rolled out on November 9 and will close on November 22 in Likoma, Nkhata Bay, Ntcheu, Kasungu, Dowa, Mchinji, Blantyre, Zomba, Luchenza and Thyolo.
During the first three days, National Registration Bureau (NRB) staff and equipment were not present in many registration centres to register individuals for national identity (ID) as ordered by the High Court of Malawi.
However, recent spot-checks in voter registration centres indicate that NRB has deployed staff in some centres. Upon registering for the national ID, registrants said they were being told to wait for two or three days before going for voter registration with MEC.
Pan African Civic Educators Network (Pacenet) executive director Olive Mpina, whose organisation is monitoring the voter registration, said in an interview yesterday that NRB took days to start assisting people in voter registration centres and it is not all centres.
She said: “In many centres people without IDs are still being turned back. We feel it is important for MEC to extend the second phase of voter registration to allow people to register for IDs and thereafter with MEC.”
Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) project officer Praise Mwenegamba also noted yesterday that in some centres, more than 100 people were being sent back per day which means that people are willing to register but cannot do so due to citizenship registration challenges.
However, MEC communications officer Richard Mveriwa said the commission extended phase one of the voter registration exercise because of NRB issues but there will be no extension for phase two.
“MEC is impressed with the turnout of people in voter registration centres during the current phase and is expecting more people to show up during the final days of the exercise,” he said.
The Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act prescribes the ID card issued by the NRB as the sole form of identification for one to register as a voter.
Opposition parties have been calling for the suspension of the entire voter registration exercise due to NRB’s purported lack of capacity.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives plans to conduct demonstrations in Lilongwe on November 21 2024 to demand suspension of the exercise and to protest against the engagement of Smartmatic which supplied election management devices (EMDs) that are currently in use to capture registrants data.
During the first phase of voter registration, MEC registered 2 224 307 people, representing 65 percent of the projected 3 423 066 people.
