By Cathy Maulidi:
Members of opposition political parties such as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), United Democratic Front (UDF) and UTM on Wednesday visited premises National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) unannounced.
While there, all hell broke loose as the opposition members claim to have found National Registration Bureau (NRB) officers who had multiple national identity (ID) cards for Lilongwe on them.
The IDs, which were at the time being packed in plastic bags, were being taken to Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) registration centres and traditional leaders, according to one officer whom the political parties found at NFRA.
Leader of delegation Sameer Suleman, who is also DPP national organising secretary, said they decided to visit NFRA offices after they got a tip that some IDs for Lilongwe were being produced there.
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“We received a tip and decided to come here to see for ourselves. Now this is it. IDs in a maize storage facility, what does this mean?
“If whatever is happening here is normal, NRB could have informed the nation. And why do they only have IDs for Lilongwe? We were there, seeing together, national IDs close to a million— only for Lilongwe. Where are they [IDs] going and why only Lilongwe and not Dowa, Mchinji or any other district?” Suleman queried.
He said they were surprised that the governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was allegedly not concerned about what was happening.
“This is their move, all political parties are worried. Why is MCP not worried about this? It’s because this is their own plan. In the Southern region, people are struggling to register for an ID while here, there are about a million IDs for Lilongwe alone,” he said.
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Also speaking on the matter, Alliance for Democracy (Aford) President Enoch Chihana faulted NRB for doing things without involving stakeholders. He said this is a crucial time when transparency should be the norm.
“If NRB engaged us on this, we couldn’t have been questioning this but they are hiding this and have been hiding it all along,” Chihana said.
Responding, NRB Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo said what was happening at NFRA was normal and that people should not worry.
“This is a normal process. The IDs were printed in South Africa and were brought here for sorting.
“This is normal and is also happening in Blantyre at our NRB office there. We are doing the sorting here because we have got no enough space at our Area 3 office,” Sambo said.
In an interview, MCP spokesperson Jessie Kabwila faulted opposition parties for going to NFRA offices unannounced.
“The NRB is a security entity and any issue surrounding them is highly sensitive. Although we appreciate the opposition’s efforts to promote transparency, their actions in this case were inappropriate. As a security entity, the NRB requires prior notice before storming the place, and simply ‘pouncing’ on them is unacceptable.
“DPP has the spirit of rigging and they think every party in government rigs elections, just like the way they used to do. Our message to DPP is that MCP will win without rigging. We are not like them; MCP is smart and has never thought of rigging an election. Because they have rigged before, they think we will also rig, No,” Kabwila said.
