availability of forex
By Cathy Maulidi:
Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) Chairperson Judge Chifundo Kachale has disclosed that the electoral body will need $187 million (approximately K220 billion) to conduct the 2025 Tripartite Elections.
Kachale met members of the Commissions, Statutory Authorities and Enterprises Committee of Parliament in Lilongwe Wednesday, when he also indicated that procurement of some election management materials will depend on the availability of forex.
He said the amount has been broken into three tranches and will be drawn from three national budgets including that of the 2025-26 financial year.
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“There are provisions in the 2023-24 financial year, the 2024-25 and another provision for the 2025-26 financial year.
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“We will be making different procurements and, as of today, we need about K28.08 billion in forex to procure different apparatus including IT equipment that will be used for the voter registration exercise. We are engaging the Treasury to ensure that those resources are made available,” the Mec chair said.
He added that the Biometric Voter Registration Kits (BVRKs) that the commission has been using for voter registration and verification since 2017 became obsolete with age and have to be replaced with Election Management Devices (EMDs).
Kachale further indicated that the EMDs have to be procured and delivered by January 31 2024 to avoid any risks that may come if this is not done.
“The procurement process for the EMDs is proceeding according to the planned timeline, with the aim of awarding the contract by November 17 2023 and granting the supplier an eight-to-10-week delivery period.
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“Based on these projected timelines, we expect the EMDs to be provided and delivered by January 31 2024. However, all this depends on the availability of forex, but we are already engaging the Treasury about this risk,” he said.
Kachale also told the lawmakers that Mec is expected to roll out the national voter registration exercise on September 16 next year.
He said the electoral body estimates that there may be up to 6,500 registration centres designated for 2025 polls.
The Mec chairperson also disclosed that they are in the process of finalising the establishment of the registration centres.
“The last step, which involves the approval of these centres, is slated for discussion at the upcoming commission meeting. The commission expects to be in a position to gazette these centres before the end of this month,” Kachale said.
He then told the parliamentary committee that according to National Statistical Office data, it is projected that the population of eligible voters in 2025 will be 10.9 million from 6.8 million who registered to vote in the 2019 polls.
A member of the committee Yeremiah Chihana said government must be able to finance the election, but forex will be a challenge.
“Democracy is expensive and I am sure government will finance this, but the bigger challenge will be the forex issue because most of the materials for elections are procured outside the country,” Chihana said.
Meanwhile, Secretary to the Treasury Macdonald Mafuta Mwale has pledged that government will provide the “much-needed” forex because election “is an issue of national importance”.
“There is no way we can fail to provide that amount for this very important activity. Government will support Mec on those procurements because this is a very important event,” Mafuta Mwale said.
According to electoral laws, only those with national identity cards (IDs) will be allowed to register to vote.
Principal Secretary for National Registration Bureau Mphatso Sambo said the department is employing temporary staff to assist in the registration of Malawians.
“We are supposed to register 1.5 million people who are turning 16 years by 2023. We expect these people to be 18 years and eligible to vote by 2025.
“So our strategy is to do outreach registration which will be done in phases. We want to make sure that these people are not just registered but also issued with the IDs,” Sambo said.
Government spent about K44 billion on the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections that involved seven presidential candidates, 1,331 parliamentary candidates, 2,615 local government aspirants and 6.86 million voters.
The rise in the budget for the 2025 elections, to be conducted on September 16, is said to be due to the devaluation of the Kwacha and procurement of new equipment, among other things.
