By Pemphero Malimba:
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has announced revised dates for pilot voter registration.
Following the development, the commission says it has enhanced preparations for the rolling out of pilot voter registration and the actual voter registration exercises—scheduled for September 13 and October 21 2024, respectively.
Mec Chairperson Judge Annabel Mtalimanja revealed this Sunday after opening a two-day training for 104 operators of Election Management Devices (EMDs) in Dowa District.
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Mtalimanja said the commission had made strides in preparation for the exercises.
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“Everything is in place as we prepare for the two voter registration exercises. Once we finalise pilot voter registration, we will be good to go for the actual voter registration,” she said.
The Mec chairperson said pilot voter registration, which will be conducted in two phases, was crucial in preparing for the general elections.
“The data collected in the pilot voter registration phase is not going to be migrated into the actual voter registration exercise. The pilot voter registration [exercise] is really [meant] to test the functionality of the machines and how they are going to cope with different weather patterns,” she said.
She further challenged training participants to prioritise integrity.
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Last month, Mec shifted dates for the two exercises due to the need to conduct awareness activities with community members in 100 centres across eight selected councils to participate in the pilot voter registration exercise to ensure that there is clear understanding of the process to avoid confusion with the main exercise.
Initially, the pilot voter registration exercise was planned to roll out on August 21 2024 while the actual voter registration was expected to take place this month.
The shifting of the dates was revealed during a National Elections Consultative Forum (Necof) meeting held in Lilongwe.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Necof meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Director of Elections Gladys Ganda challenged the commission to expedite election processes.
“They (Mec) need to do it quickly because there is a need for us to engage our people to understand what the whole issue is all about,” Ganda said.
Youth and Society Executive Director Charles Kajoloweka urged Mec to stick to its calendar.
“It is our hope that Mec will stick to its calendar so that there is predictability in terms of the calendar and that the subsequent activities are not affected by some of the adjustments that are being made,” Kajoloweka said.
The development is coming at a time Mec has announced that it has entered into a resource-sharing arrangement with the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), a development that will see the electoral body borrowing generators from the neighbouring country’s commission.
“As part of this agreement, the commission [Mec] requested to borrow, and the ECZ has agreed to lend, a total of 1,500 electricity generators (gensets) for supplementary use during voter registration for the [September 16] 2025 General Election.
“The need to borrow the gensets has become necessary to ensure that the commission has the backup power capacity to conduct voter registration without any disruptions. To carry out this exercise, the commission requires a total of 2,945 generators. Currently, the commission has 1,445 in stock, leaving a deficit of 1,500 generators that need to be filled,” the statement, which Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa signed, reads.
Mec has further announced that it is in the process of procuring 1,080 generators.
It, however, says due to logistical challenges, the consignment would not arrive in the country in time for the commencement of voter registration.
The borrowed generators from ECZ arrived in the country through Mchinji District on September 8.
