Second phase of voters’ roll verification starts today

The second phase of the voter verification exercise starts today (Monday) and end on Friday, April 25, says the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).

In a statement, MEC chief elections officer Willie Kalonga said the second phase will cover the districts of Mulanje, Machinga, Mangochi, Balaka, Salima, Nkhotakota, and all districts in the Northern Region.

The commission is encouraging all registered voters in these districts who might be unable to verify their details during weekdays to take advantage of the Easter Monday holiday to verify their details.

“Those who lost their certificates need to go where they registered to get duplicate certificates which will enable them to vote easily on May 20,” said Kalonga.

In a separate interview, National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust executive director Ollen Mwalubunju described the voters’ roll as a very important exercise.

“Nice is appealing to all civic education outlets such as traditional leaders, religious leaders and other electoral stakeholders to intensify mobilisation so that people go and verify if their names and details appear correctly in the voters’ roll,” said Mwalubunju.

This comes after the first phase of the voters’ roll inspection, which was mostly characterised by low turn-out ended on April 13.

The first phase was held in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Blantyre City, Blantyre District, Mwanza, Neno, Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Thyolo, Luchenza, Zomba City and Zomba District.