By Mercy Matonga:
Malawians who attempted to register in the afternoon of the final day of voter registration were unable to do so due to a shutdown of the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) system, The Daily Times can reveal.
Mec spokesperson Richard Mveriwa confirmed the development Monday.
He said the electoral body was mapping the way forward.
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“Mec is aware of the issue and, currently, our officials are meeting to determine the next steps. We will release a statement on that at an appropriate time,” Mveriwa said.
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According to information sourced by The Daily Times, the Mec system automatically shut down soon after 4pm, despite long queues of people waiting to register to vote in the 2025 elections.
Mec regulations state that all individuals present at registration centres before closing time must be registered, even if the process continues beyond the official closing time.
However, on December 11, which was the final day of the last phase of registration, the Mec system shut down automatically in all registration centres, leaving all people who were in queues unable to register.
It is currently unclear whether another registration period will be held to accommodate those affected.
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Recently, opposition parties called on Mec to redo the registration process for phases one and two, claiming that some eligible voters were not registered during those phases.
Mec began the voter registration exercise on October 21 2024, and the final phase was concluded on December 11 2024.
Preliminary figures from the commission indicate that over 4.6 million people have registered during phases one and two.
Already, political parties have been expressing mixed views on voter registration extension.
For instance, on December 9 this year, the governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and some opposition political parties, notably the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), differed on the timeframe for the extended period of 2025 general elections voter registration exercises.
On October 30 this year, Mec Chairperson, Judge Annabel Mtalimanja, announced, through a press statement, that the commission would extend the first phase of the exercise to address problems that arose during the period citizen registration services were unavailable at voter registration centres.
The electoral body made the decision following the High Court order of October 25 this year.
The court directed the National Registration Bureau (NRB) to start registering new identity card (ID) holders for voter registration instead of doing national ID verification only.
Initially, NRB was supposed to be offering ID verification services at registration centres.
MCP spokesperson Jessie Kabwila is on record to have said there was a need for Mec to retake phase one of the exercise.
According to Kabwila, the first phase faced a number of hiccups.
“According to the Malawi Congress Party, the first phase, we believe, needs to be extended. As for the second phase, we believe whatever needed to be done was done properly,” Kabwila said.
On his part, DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said there was a need to extend the registration period for all phases.
He said almost all phases had been negatively affected by the problem of fuel shortage.
“We are talking of a period when fuel was scarce to the extent that it was difficult to mobilise Mec staff and [monitors] to go to centres. Some of Mec’s equipment was also affected as some of it uses fuel. Because fuel was scarce, the machines could not operate properly,” Namalomba said.
He also bemoaned delays in the provision of national ID registration services at some voter registration centres.
“Similarly, particularly for phase one, there was no NRB staff at Mec registration centres when we started [voter registration]. Therefore, they were not registering new national ID holders) even when there was a court ruling to the effect that NRB equipment or staff had to be available where Mec was conducting registration.
“However, they were not there and, where they were there, they were not there in good time,” he said.
UDF spokesperson Dyson Jangia said the party would be happy if phase one and two of the voter registration exercise were retaken.
“We, as UDF, are looking forward to the fact that Mec will at least repeat the registration exercise from phase one and two.
“As for phase three, we haven’t sat down to assess the gravity of problems and regularities which were there,” Jangia said.
