Another poll gadget misses: Credibility of 2019 Malawi votes in question

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is missing a laptop with crucial elections data just days after a biometric voter registration kit went missing and was found in Mozambique, raising more suspicions of of possible rigging in the 2019 Tripartite Elections.

MEC officials say the laptop went missing between Katoto Secondary School in Mzuzu and Chitipa where the officials went for the ongoing registration exercise.

The laptop from registration kit 1241 went missing between October 23 and 24 as well as a power bank.

“They found that there was no laptop, power bank and its cable was damaged. The matter was reported to Mzuzu police,” said a senior MEC official who asked not to be named.

MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa and police spokesperson in Mzuzu Peter Kalaya asked for more time before commenting on the matter.

The poll officials are this week set to meet political party representatives and other stakeholders after the  a biometric voter registration kit used in the ongoing voter registration exercise was found on a train in Mozambique.

But MEC officials are playing down the matter, saying this was mere theft not intentional rigging and that that all the data in the recovered kit is intact as it was encrypted.

The recovered kit contained data for those who registered for citizenship at Ndonda in Kasungu, Nthuwila School in Ntchisi, and Chauwa School in Lilongwe and got lost as it was being transported in an open Tata truck from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) en route to Mwanza, according to MEC.

MEC was informed of the recovery of the kit on September 29 2018 and reported to police.

The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and civil society organisations (CSOs) under the banner of Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HDRC) have called for the immediate resignation of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Justice Jane Ansah over incompetence in how she has handled the missing voter registration kit.

But Ansah is defiant to the demands, says she will not step down.

The concerns about rigging of elections emerged in July this year, when Vice-President Saulos Chilima, while launching the United Transformation Movement (UTM), alleged that he is aware that government has procured a spying machine.