Four opposition political parties have asked the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to discontinue the ongoing voter registration exercise for the September 16 2025 General Elections or address their demands.
During a joint press briefing in Lilongwe yesterday, representatives of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Alliance for Democracy, UTM Party and United Democratic Front (UDF) made several demands, including that MEC should discontinue a contract with an information and communications technology (ICT) company Smartmatic.
The parties have given MEC 14 days to comply with the demands or face nationwide mass demonstrations.
In his contribution, DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said: “We are demanding that the voter registration exercise must be discontinued within two weeks, otherwise we will take serious action.”
The parties are also demanding the replacement of MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja and chief elections officer Andrew Mpesi for allegedly being sympathisers of Malawi Congress Party (MCP), a key member of the governing Tonse Alliance.
They also called for compliance to High Court of Malawi Judge Mandala Mambulasa’s ruling that the National Registration Bureau (NRB) should be present in all registration centres to enable eligible voters without national identity (ID) cards to register.
UTM Party secretary general, Patricia Kaliati said the way MEC and NRB are operating is like the September 16 2025 General Elections rigging has already started.
“We want all the registrants to be given equal opportunities of voter and civic education and because of that the processes need to start all over again,” she said.
In an interview yesterday, MEC communications officer Richard Mveriwa referred The Nation to the electoral body’ earlier statement on the matter. The statement in question stated that the electoral body undertook thoroughly research before engaging Smartmatic.
MEC said it settled for three potential companies who were sent request for technical offers. The other bidders were Aratek Ltd of Taiwan, Miru Systems of Korea and Smartmatic of the Netherlands.
Further, MEC has also previously stated that Mtalimanja, a judge of the High Court of Malawi, and Mpesi were recruited on merit and following laid down procedures.
On the other hand, NRB indicated in a statement after Mabulasa’s judgement that it would open additional registration centres besides its existing district registration offices.
The first phase of voter registration opened on October 21 and will close on November 3 in Chitipa, Karonga, Mzuzu, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Salima, Dedza, Balaka, Machinga, Chiradzulu, Neno, Phalombe and Mulanje.
The Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act prescribes the national ID as the sole form of identification for voter registration.
