North registers low voter registration offences
Northern Region Police has said phase eight of the voter registration exercise, which covered Mzuzu City, Nkhata Bay, Likoma and Mzimba, has recorded fewer cases of election-related offences when compared to other phases.
Northern Region Police deputy spokesperson Maurice Chapola said this in an interview on Thursday in Mzuzu.
“We have registered very few voter registration offences. The main issue registered was the Malawi Electoral Commission [MEC] generators which were stolen at Kazuni,” he said.
Chapola said they expect to arrest more suspects in the ongoing investigations into the matter in which MEC biometric voter registration kit operator, Chifundo Macheso, 26, National Registration Bureau (NRB) officer, Andrew Magombo, 24, attempted to sell a MEC generator at Mpherembe Trading Centre through a business person Martin Kumwenda whom the two recruited as a middleman.
Details from police show that Macheso and Magombo, who were deployed to Kazuni Centre between October 24 and 25 found that another full MEC kit, comprising a generator and a solar panel, had already been assigned to the centre. Although one of the suspects, Macheso, reported to his supervisor, Magombo and Macheso connived to sell the generator.
The three suspects—Macheso from Wisiki Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Machinjiri in Blantyre, Magombo from Lununda Village in T/A Kamenyagwaza in Dedza and Kumwenda from Mpherembe in Mzimba—are expected to answer charges of theft contrary to Section 278 of the Penal Code.
Meanwhile, according to Chapola, police in Mzimba are keeping in custody Mustafa Bwaduka, 33, who was arrested at Chankhanga Primary School for trying to register twice. Bwaduka hails from Kasalika Village in T/A Kaomba in Kasungu and will appear in court soon.
MEC expects to register nine million eligible voters in the entire 2018 voter registration exercise. So far, 6 264 183 voters have been registered in phases one to seven, representing 81 percent of the projected 7 745 095 for the first seven phases. Voter registration statistics for the just-ended phase are yet to be released.
