Road to 2025 starts Aug 2
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) will on August 2 this year launch the road to the September 16 2025 General Elections with an outline of a detailed calendar of events.
During a media briefing in Lilongwe on Tuesday, MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja said MEC will from August 1 start receiving names for accreditation, of representatives and observers for the voter registration process.
She said the registration exercise will be conducted in three phases, each lasting 14 days and that the electoral body will announce the dates for each phase.
Said Mtalimanja: “The commission has accredited 116 civil society organisations [[CSOs] to conduct voter education.”
She also reiterated that the national identity cards (IDs) will be the sole identification document for the registration of eligible voters in keeping with the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act.
Mtalimanja, a judge of the High Court of Malawi appointed to lead the commission last month, said MEC will follow the law in handling of the registration and only accept national IDs issued by National Registration Bureau (NRB).
“If you do not have the national ID go and register now to have one. Those without proof of registration with the National Registration Bureau will not register as voters,” she said.
The use of national ID is in accordance with Section 12 of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act which states that a person who is eligible to be registered as a voter in an election shall, as proof of eligibility, present in person to a registration officer, proof of his or her national ID.
Perhaps reacting to concerns of NRB capacity in renewing IDs and printing new ones, Mtalimanja said MEC will accommodate holders of expired national IDs.
During the briefing, Alliance for Democracy (Aford) spokesperson Amatullah Annie Maluwa said her party may be left with no option but to move the courts to intervene on the decision to use only national ID during voter registration.
She said Aford will seek a judicial review of the decision to use only national IDs, adding a number of people are struggling to access national IDs and sticking to that will affect voters.
S i m i l a r l y, Democratic Progressive Party secretary general Clement Mwale said the NRB does not have the capacity to issue IDs to all Malawians that will be eligible to vote.
He said the party has observed in the mass registration for national IDs that some people are failing to register, adding the NRB’s incapacitation should not be a means of violating the right of Malawians to vote.
“Sticking to national ID will see Malawians being deprived the right to vote. The party is exploring various ways on addressing the issue, and if worse comes to worst, we will also move the courts,” said Mwale.
NRB has come under fire over perceived capacity challenges in processing the registration of people into its database.
But NRB Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo in an interview on Tuesday said the bureau has registered 96 percent of those who are above 16 years, the eligibility age for one to have an ID. He added that 97 percent of the cards have been printed and the bureau is working on completing the three percent.
“Their concerns might not be true. They are based on no evidence,” he said.
Meanwhile, governance commenta tor Moses Mkandawire has said the NRB should reach to every corner of the country so that people acquire national IDs and register as voters.
MEC projects that the country will have 10 957 490 eligible voters. The new figure is up from 8.7 million in the 2019 election as indicated in the Population and Housing Census of 2018.
The projected figures show that Central Region will have the highest number of eligible voter at 4 827 703 followed by Southern Region with 4 706 285 and Northern region with 1 423 502.
