Opposition members of Parliament have demanded an audit of the voters’ roll following reports that about one million names are missing in the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) register.
Raising the issue on the private members day, leader of opposition George Chaponda said his office received reports that over one million names are missing in the voters roll including MEC commissioner Francis Kasaira and his wife a matter which needs urgent attention.
But Minister of Justice Titus Mvalo has described the concern as premature as it is a normal process for voters to verify their names while also disputing the one million figure as misleading, saying MEC records indicate that only 11 names are missing.
However, Chaponda described the situation as disturbing, saying the missing of the commissioner’s name raises questions as to how many Malawians have been affected; hence, he demanded voters roll audit and immediate voter verification exercise.
He said: “We demand that there must be immediate voter verification, we know, as it has been said by others that it is a process but already it is a disturbing issue when we have a few months before election, it is important that voter verification must be done now.
“We are also demanding that the voters roll audit must be done because that is what can satisfy the hearts of Malawians. Finally, that issue of emphacising that we don’t want the use of smatmatic machine in the electoral process because it has proved to be causing troubles.”
However, in an interview, Mvalo said the concerns are premature because the electoral process has a calendar which includes stages like registration, verification and cleaning of the voters register.
Mvalo, who disputed the alleged one million number of missing names, said there is no need for auditing the voters’ roll because the process already provides mechanisms for verification.
He said: “The allegation made here is that one million names are missing, that is not true at all. In fact, according to MEC, only 11 names are missing but even those names each of them is in the registration database.
“The process, as it is, guarantees the verification. It guarantees anybody to look in the register and see what is not there so it (audit) is not really necessary in my view because the process already has inbuilt mechanisms for verification.”
Earlier, political party leaders expressed concern with the missing of some records in the voters’ roll in separate interviews.
DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito said their fear is that some registered voters will be turned back from polling centres on September 16.
On his part, UTM publicity secretary Felix Njawala said the missing of records could be a result of the commission’s reluctance to listen to the parties’ advice.
“But it is important that MEC should investigate and inform the public on exactly what happened,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, Aford publicity secretary Annie Maluwa said MEC should have been more proactive in preventing such discrepancies and urged the commission to ensure that all registered voters’ details are secure.
MEC director of media and public relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa, in a statement on Friday, said all registered voters should be assured that their details remain intact and that no duly registered voter will be disenfranchised.
Malawians will head to the polls on September 16 this year to elect a President, 229 members of Parliament and 509 ward councillors.
