By Pemphero Malimba:
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) is set to conduct the second phase of the supplementary voter registration exercise starting from Monday.
The exercise ends Tuesday.
The second phase of the exercise is set to be carried out in Nkhata Bay District, Rumphi District, Likoma District, Kasungu District, Kasungu Municipality, Mchinji District, Dowa District, Ntcheu District, Zomba District, Zomba City, Blantyre District, Blantyre City, Thyolo District and Luchenza Municipality.
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Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said Sunday that the exercise targets people who registered with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) between October 21 2024 and January 4 2025, as per High Court Judge Mandala Mambulasa’s ruling made on October 25 2024.
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“The ruling of the High Court on 25 October 2024 directed that everyone who presented themselves at registration centres but [was] not registered with NRB should be supported to register with NRB and then to register as voters.
“NRB went back to councils to give people support of civil registration and register anybody who failed to register in the first phase. So, when we were going to this exercise, the people we were targeting are [those were not assisted] from 21 October 2024 up to the fourth of January 2025, which is the date which the NRB concluded the supplementary civil registration,” Mwafulirwa said.
He said through the exercise, there would be no registration of new people who registered with NRB before October 21 2024.
“We are not opening all centres. We are opening targeted centres. So, people should go to a centre nearest to them and then register with the Malawi Electoral Commission,” he said.
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Commenting on the development, Centre for Democracy and Elections Team Leader Aloysius Nthenda said it was doubtful that there would be improved turnout of eligible voters.
“This is because there is a lack of awareness on who is eligible to register and where people can go to register. There is still confusion about those that are eligible to register and the location of the registration centres.
“It is doubtful that the situation will be much different this time around. It could be similar to what transpired during the first phase of supplementary voter registration, when turnout was poor,” Nthenda said.
He said the organisation maintained its recent position for an extension of the voter registration.
“We maintain our position that extension of voter registration is still viable considering the number of would-be registrants that are being turned back at registration centres.
“Secondly, we still have adequate time before September 16 2025,” he said.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation Executive Director Michael Kaiyatsa concurred with Nthenda.
“Much as CSOs have been on the ground mobilising potential voters to come out and register, the reality is that more work could have been done to mobilise the masses. We needed to a more robust civic education campaigns to encourage people to register by partnering local leaders, for example,” Kaiyatsa said.
He said he was concerned with the placement of registration centres for the exercise.
“There were also accessibility issues during the last phase [where] some people were finding it hard to cover long distances to register. We had asked Mec to ensure that registration centres were not spaced far apart but, unfortunately, that has not been addressed and if that is the case, we are likely to see poor voter turnout,” he said.
The first phase of the supplementary voter registration exercise, which was carried out from Tuesday to Wednesday last week, was marred by low turnout of people in most registration centres.
Mec is targeting about 270,000 people in all three phases.
