Pilot voter registration exposes challenges
The just-ended pilot voter registration exercise has exposed logistical and technical challenges which some stakeholders want the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to rectify before the actual exercise begins next month.
An observation report issued by Centre for Democracy and Elections (Cede) shows that the process was primarily affected by low turnout, faulty equipment such as cameras and election management devices (EMDs), late opening of centres, inadequate civic education and failure to properly brief party agents on their roles, among others.
The exercise, which took place in 100 centres in the cities of Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Blantyre as well as Chitipa, Dedza, Balaka, Neno and Nsanje districts, ended on Thursday.
While acknowledging challenges, MEC insists the pilot voter registration has been a success.
According to the report dated September 1920, in all centres monitored the EMDs could not read and scan the national ID replacement forms and the camera took pictures after several attempts, resulting in one person taking more than 15 minutes to register.
Registrants that came with only National Registration Bureau (NRB) receipts due to delayed issuance of national IDs could not be verified by the system because of the lack of ‘Date of Issue’ it requires to be logged in.
“The NRB officer, however, had to override the system by logging in on the date the first NRB cards were issued… This power to override the system may be open to abuse by the NRB staff,” reads the report.
It further highlights other external factors affecting the process such as allegations of planned rigging and that some traditional leaders are discouraging people from participating in the exercise.
“Cede is calling upon MEC and NRB to work together to rectify the challenges identified during the pilot voter registration before the actual voter registration next month,” concludes the report.
But MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa insisted in an interview yesterday that the machines had proved to be good and they are confident the technology would work effectively during the actual registration exercise.
He said: “We have not encountered any significant challenge that can jeopardise the scheduled start of actual voter registration on 21 October 2024. That should not mean that we have not noted the issues, there are still some that we have to reflect on.”
Mwafulirwa, however, said MEC would conduct a post-mortem meeting of the exercise before embarking on the actual voter registration to reflect on all issues raised by various stakeholders like political parties, civil society and the media.
