Concerned citizens threaten to protest against NRB registration of minors
A group of concerned citizens has threatened to call for protests if National Registration Bureau (NRB) continue to register children below the age of 16 years in their current registration exercise.
Leader of the group, Wells Khama told reporters in Lilongwe on Friday that while NRB exercise is underway they are saddened to learn of a scheme being masterminded by some politicians and political parties who are attempting to manipulate the process to help them rig votes.
“We have gathered evidence such politicians are going out and about of in rural and urban communities forcing children aged between 12 and 16 to go and register at NRB centres using force information about their age,” he said.
KHAMA alleged that politicians are paying money directly to the children or being included in the beneficiary list of Social Cash Transfers (Mtukula pa Khomo).
Khama therefore called upon NRB to collaborate with stakeholders to swiftly identify and delete all entries from children who backdated their ages and stop registering them.
He also asked the police to arrest perpetrators as well as confiscate Identity Cards from the children.
Time is now to deal with voter roll manipulation, he said..
Khama therefore urged child rights actors to bring awareness activities to the communities.