Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja alongside other public officers risk being jailed for allegedly ignoring a High Court of Malawi order to register eligible voters without national identity (IDs) cards.
In their application, five concerned citizens, namely George Chipwaira, Godfrey Banda, Alex Phillip Dimba, James Chitsulo and Crino Masulani, argue that some
eligible voters failed to register during the voter registration exercise for the September 16 2025 General Elections due to absence of National Registration Bureau (NRB) equipment and officers in some centres.
Mtalimanja, a judge of the High Court of Malawi, is being accused alongside NRB Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo and other officials.
In an interview after the court proceedings in Blantyre yesterday, one of the applicants’ lawyers, Felix Tambulasi, said their clients observed that many registration centres had no NRB equipment and staff to enable those without national IDs to register in the voter’s roll.
He said this denied some eligible voter’s access to register and vote in the September 16 2025 general elections.
“So, we are going to court to say no, your directive hasn’t been complied with,” said Tambulasi.
But in a separate interview, Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda said the State has raised a number of objections through a preliminary application, asking the court to dismiss the five Malawians’ application.
Among others, the State argues that the five applicants have no sufficient interest on the matter as they are all duly registered in the NRB and MEC voter’s roll database and they cannot represent those who did not register.
The State further argued that the application is incompetent because it was supposed to be a criminal matter which uses witness statements. However, the applicants used affidavits which the State said were irregular.
High Court of Malawi Judge Allan Muhome has since adjourned the matter to January 17 2025 for a ruling on whether to commence a contempt of court hearing against MEC and NRB officials.
In October this year, High Court Judge Mandala Mambulasa ordered that NRB should register eligible voters who turn up at MEC voter registration centres without national IDs, the sole form of identification for one to register as a voter.
However, despite the order, there have been queries from some electoral stakeholders that some registration centres had no NRB equipment and officers.
Last week, three civ il societies namely Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) and Mtendere Elections Support Network asked MEC to redo the three phases of the voter registration because the exercise continued facing challenges.
IPI project officer Praise Mwenegamba is on record as having said out of the third phase registration centres his organisation monitored in Mwanza, at least eight had no NRB biometric registration kits.
