The first phase of Malawi Electoral Commission’s (MEC) voter transfer exercise is set to start from Tuesday up to Thursday, targeting 14 councils.
The exercise will see voters being transferred to other registration centres where voters have moved to or are planning to move to.
The councils include Chitipa, Karonga, Karonga Town, Mzuzu City, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Salima, Dedza, Machinga, Chiradzulu, Neno, Phalombe, Balaka and Mulanje.
Briefing the media in Lilongwe on Friday, MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja said voter transfers will be based on Section 8 (1) of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Act.
She said: “This means a voter may only transfer to a place where he or she would have been eligible to register by virtue of the reasons of residence, place of birth, business or employment. Voters will not be allowed to transfer willy-nilly or to places where they do not satisfy any of these criteria.”
According to Mtalimanja, the second phase of the exercise will start from March 5 to March 7 2025 and will target Nkhata Bay, Rumphi, Likoma, Kasungu, Kasungu Municipality, Dowa, Mchinji, Ntcheu, Zomba, Zomba City, Blantyre, Blantyre City, Thyolo and Luchenza councils.
The third and final phase will start on March 13 to March 15 2025 in Mzimba, Lilongwe, Lilongwe City, Mangochi, Mangochi Municipality, Mwanza, Chikwawa and Nsanje councils.
With registration centres set to open from 8am to 4pm, voters processing their transfers must do so in person at preferred voting centres as transfers can only be confirmed through an individual voter’s fingerprint verification.
According to Mtalimanja, a voter who seeks a transfer must present their voter registration certificate and that if it is lost, they should provide their national identity (ID) card to facilitate verification in the register.
She said if both documents are unavailable, they should still visit their preferred centre where officials will search using personal bio-graphics of the voter—a combination of full name and date of birth.
Transfers of the particular voters will, therefore, proceed if their name has been confirmed to be in the voters’ register.
“I should emphasise that an individual seeking to transfer their voter registration is not required to visit the centre they registered. Instead, he or she must go to the centre where they want to be transferred to.
“Upon completing the voter transfer process, the individual will be issued with a new voter registration certificate reflecting their new voter registration centre and where they will vote on the polling day,” said Mtalimanja.
She said the original registration certificate will be retained by MEC.
MEC’s preliminary registration figures show that 7.2 million voters have registered to vote in the September 16 2025 General Elections. But the figure excludes 14 173 duplicate records flagged by MEC’s system.
The preliminary registration figure represents 65.7 percent of the 10.9 million eligible population that would be 18 years and above by the time of polling, based on National Statistical Office projections.
Ahead of the tripartite polls, political parties, in particular, those in opposition, have been pressing MEC to focus much on civic education to ensure people are aware of the voting process.
But MEC voter and civic education manager King Norman Rudi told The Nation last week that lack of funding towards civil society organisations (CSO’s) could hamper such activities ahead of the elections.
He acknowledged that CSOs complement MEC in voter and civic education; hence, lack of funding will mean efforts in wooing voters will be inadequate.
He said: “We [MEC] may not be at each and every place to sensitise the people. If the CSOs do not get funding, it means our work as MEC would be heavy in ensuring that we reach out to every voter”.
