MEC goes biometric registration for 2019 Malawi elections

Pollster, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is assuring Malawians of trouble free 2019 elections, hinting registration will be biometric as people will have national IDs provided by the National Registration Bureau.

Malawi Electoral Commission
Tembo: Biometric

Nancy Tembo, MEC commissioner said Friday in Blantyre during a stakeholders meeting that the commission will be calling for a national conference in December to tackle all election challenges.

“In February, the National Registration Bureau will be piloting the exercise. The whole national ID project will be rolled out in 2017, giving us enough time to make preparations,” she said.

Tembo said MEC will buy machines that will easily capture details from national IDs that include the contentious nationality and age.

She said the process will also cut down the budget for elections as fewer staff than ever before will e hired for the registration exercise.

Tembo also said a taskforce that has been formed to look into electoral issues will also tackle proposals from Malawi Congress Party(MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera’s proposed legislation of 50-plus-one election victory for a President.

President Peter Mutharika amassed 39 per cent of the six million vote in the 2014 poll that put Chakwera on second position having missed Kamuzu Palace with just a 600000 plus vote to Mutharika.

UDF spokesman Ken Ndanga hailed the meeting saying MEC and other poll stakeholders should always engage in discussion to improve the way elections are managed in the country.

Ndanga said there is room for improvement on the way elections are conducted.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
25 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mwachaje
mwachaje
8 years ago

Do not just throw unsubstantiated accusations about individuals. Go to the ACB with your claims if you have evidence that Mbendera received dollars to rig elections. Don’t forget to tell the ACB about how the other commissioners received money from your mother’s PP.
By the way Resinati,many individuals in Malawi do have investments and they do receive Dollars,ask people who have properties in LL and BT they will tell you.

Resinate
Resinate
8 years ago

Mbendera should be sacked first before anyone can vote, every Malawian should boycott from voting because the last election was rigged because Mbendera received thousands of dollars from DPP.

Charombanthu
Charombanthu
8 years ago

This project (national IDs) is overdue and we know that those in power are always deliberately dilly dallying because it will ensure that the elections are not rigged in any way. Tisamvenso kuti mwalephera kupanga implement. We are anxiously looking forward to it.

UNECA
8 years ago

Kuluza kapena kuwina kwa peter kwa ine ziribe phindu ndikuvutika ndi njala ndekha posakhala boma kutichitira pragram yoti chimanga chitsike.

mwachaje
mwachaje
8 years ago

A Khuluvi, yambani inuyo kutukwana a Mbendera ndi a Kalonga malingana kuti enaake akutumani kuti muziwatukwana. Mukatha kutukwana mutiuza.

A Peter27 ngati mpakana lero mukuganiza kuti munaluza chifukwa cha munthu mmodzi ndinu omvetsa chisoni zedi. Afunseni ma commissioner anu munadzadzitsa ku MEC aja akuuzeni chilungamo chenicheni mmalo momangokunamizani.

Mukutayatu nthawi.yambani kukonzekera 2019.apo bii muzizalilanso ndi kutukwana chimodzi-modzi.
Kuwina amawina pa ground osati kungoganizira mmutu mwanu. It’s all about numbers, Afunseni a statics akuthandizeni.

kapenandiye
kapenandiye
8 years ago

That the way to go. To slence mcp forever. With bio they will not have any excuse about election rigging. Elections are about numbers. Mcp can not surpas dpp in numbers. Thats why they want to combine with pp in 2019. Wait there is somethin in the number 9 remember 2009 MCP And UDF combined the results shameful. If u want to be shamed to ur bones do it in 2019.

Captain Mediocrity
Captain Mediocrity
8 years ago

@ Khuluvi-Nde muziwatukwana for what exactly??? You know this is based on reforms by stakeholders including all the political parties so I do not understand what Mbendera or Kalonga have to do with this. The person representing MEC is a known MCP supporter, her husband is related to JZU, so this isn’t about rigging or what have you, this is about ways of improving the process, among them costs, which the commissioner has alluded to in the article. Kodi why must everything be based on individuals????

ntata
ntata
8 years ago

This project requires skills..its unfortunate you have failed to give Malawians an opportunity to run this initiative and yet it is the same Malawians who work behind the scenes in the countries you have hired those expertriates

botomani
botomani
8 years ago

Rigging plans are in shambles with this plan. But I expect resistance from certain quarters.

Peter27
Peter27
8 years ago

I don’t give a $&@” how or what the elections will be like in 2019. There must be a total overhaul at MEC first, then and only then should you start introducing all these little crowd pleaser tricks. You don’t trick a wound by just covering it!
Fire all the bastards at MEC first!!!

Read previous post:
Businessman Jashbal Patel wins K5M in Airtel Tisanje Promotions

Blantyre based businessman Jashbal Patel beamed with joy on Friday after he won the grand prize of K5 million in...

Close