National Registration Bureau (NRB) has come under fire from opposition political parties for failing to comply with a High Court of Malawi order to facilitate national identity card (ID) registration for eligible voters.
In its ruling on Friday, the court said NRB should register eligible voters who turn up at Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) voter registration centres without national IDs, the sole form of identification for one to register as a voter.
However, four days after the order, it has emerged that NRB is yet to comply with the order.
underway in 14 councils
This has prompted Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and UTM Party to threaten to move the court as they believe the bureau is in contempt of court.
The parties’ reaction come after a statement signed by NRB Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo stating that the bureau will comply with the court directive by opening more centres in addition to existing national ID registration centres in all districts.
Reads the statement: “NRB will, as a matter of urgency, open additional centres to assist Malawians who may have not yet registered for the national ID, to register and be issued with a unique ID and proof of registration.
“In MEC voter registration centres NRB will continue to provide digital identity verification services as has been the case since 21st October 2024.”
But Sambo did not respond to The Nation when contacted for an explanation on whether this constitutes compliance with the court order.
In an interview yesterday, DPP publicity secretary Shadric Namalomba accused the bureau of ignoring the directive of the High Court.
“The court order says NRB must register people for IDs at each and every centre where MEC is registering voters so what they are doing is contempt of court,” he said.
UTM Party publicity secretary Felix Njawala also accused the bureau of choosing not to understand the court directive.
“Matters of elections should not be taken lightly because any room for suspicion creates problems,” he said.
But Malawi Congress Party publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila, whose party is the key partner in the depleted governing Tonse Alliance, said the party welcomed NRB’s efforts to comply with the ruling by increasing access to national IDs registration to ensure that no one is disenfranchised.
The High Court on Friday dismissed an application for an order to stop implementation of Section 12 of Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act which mandates MEC to accept national ID as the sole form of identification for voter registration.
Presiding judge Mandala Mambulasa said the court was not satisfied with NRB’s explanation that it was failing to register people for national IDs in MEC voter registration centres because those responsible for approval of completed ID application forms would not be in MEC’s registration centres.
He, thus, directed NRB to take steps ensuring that persons who meet the eligibility criteria to vote in general elections, but present themselves at MEC registration centres with no proof of eligibility issued to them by NRB, are assisted to register with the bureau.
But spot checks at some voter registration centres in Machinga and Salima districts yesterday indicated that NRB was yet to deploy biometric registration kits in these centres for national ID registration.
Meanwhile, political analyst George Chaima has said the best places for NRB to place registration centres were where MEC is conducting voter registration.
MEC is conducting phase one of voter registration in 14 councils nationwide and the exercise, which started on October 21, is expected to run up to November 2 2024.
NRB is on record to have said that it has registered 12.5 million people for national IDs while MEC is targeting to register 10.9 million people for the 2025 General Elections.
