National Registration Bureau (NRB) has deployed staff and biometric registration kits for national identity cards (IDs) to some Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) voter registration centres under phase two to capture those not in the database.
The deployment is in compliance with a High Court of Malawi judgement ordering the bureau to ensure that individuals aged 18 and above who turn up at voter registration centres without national IDs or proof of identity are assisted.
The Nation checks in some centres in Blantyre, Zomba, Nkhata Bay and Mchinji established the presence of registration staff and equipment.
At Catholic Institute Primary School registration centre in Blantyre yesterday, three NRB officers were on site with two of them assisting those without IDs while the other conducted verification of IDs for individuals who already registered with NRB.
Centre supervisor Blessing Kafumbwe said a person who is not captured in the NRB database completes a registration form and undergoes the biometric registration process before being advised to return after two days.
“All the registrations for a single day are processed in Lilongwe where the approval and generation of unique numbers are done. After two days, the registrant is given a system generated receipt which they can use to register as a voter,” said the supervisor.
In Zomba, NRB officers were present at Chancellor College registration centre while in Mchinji they were seen at Bua Primary School and Kamuzu Model Primary School.
The second phase of the voter registration exercise is being conducted in Zomba, Blantyre, Thyolo, Ntcheu, Mchinji, Dowa, Kasungu, Nkhata Bay, Likoma and Rumphi.
When asked about the status of deployment of NRB staff and equipment in registration centres nationwide, NRB Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo said the information he has is that the bureau’s staff are available in all voter registration centres.
Section 12 of the Parliamentary, Presidential and Local Government Elections Act mandates MEC to accept a national ID, whether valid or expired, or proof of registration notification issued by NRB as the sole identification for voter registration.
On October 25, the High Court in Blantyre ordered NRB to put in place adequate mechanisms that would ensure that people who present themselves without IDs for voter registration should be assisted to register in NRB’s database.
The judgement followed a petition by concerned citizens who argued that the law would disenfranchise them as NRB had not captured all eligible voters in its database.
Opposition parties and other electoral stakeholders have been pushing the bureau to comply with the court order. They also asked MEC to vary the requirement, but the electoral body has insisted that it was only following the law. n
Additional reporting by HOLYCE KHOLOWA, ZONDANI MBALE and CHRISPINE MSISKA, Correspondents
