Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo has assured that a solution will be found to address the gap in the electoral law which threatens to disenfranchise thousands of voters providing electoral services on polling day.
Section 74 of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections (PPLGE) Act of 2023 restricts voters to cast their ballots at registration centres where they registered or transferred to.
In an interview on Friday, Mvalo said that Parliament will be dissolved on July 23, but said the law allows the President to reconvene the National Assembly for an emergency meeting.
He said: “I cannot rule out the possibility of the President calling for an emergency meeting.
“So, not all is lost as a way will be found to ensure that nobody is disenfranchised.”
The category of voters to be affected includes security officers such as Malawi Police Service and Malawi Defence Force (MDF) officers, party representatives, election observers and journalists.
Mvalo also said the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) could implement Section 62 (3) of the PPLGE which permits it to establish polling stations to allow MDF and police officers as well as members of their families to vote in the last two days prior to polling day.
But in an interview, MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said the commission will not implement early voting in the 2025 General Election.
“All voters—including security personnel and their families—will vote on polling day itself, alongside the rest of the citizenry,” he said.
Prior to the PPLGE, the old electoral law permitted MEC to issue transfer letters during the polling day to registered voters allowing them to vote elsewhere.
In a separate interview, Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament chairperson Albert Mbawala said the PPLGE Act was meant to bring sanity and discipline in the conduct of elections but in the process, there was a serious oversight.
