Government to intensify voter civic education
The Ministry of Civic Education, Culture and Community Development says it has embarked on an extensive voter civic education as one way of reducing null and void votes during the forthcoming May 21 Tripartite Elections.
The ministry spokesperson Alick Kampeza said in an interview they are set to roll out massive voter civic education on effective elections for voters throughout the country.
“The campaign to be followed on civic education has a number of activities one of which is the provision of door-to-door voter civic education to ensure no-one is left behind,” he said.
Kampeza added that the Ministry would work with Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust and other electoral stakeholders.
He said the new approach would enable all eligible voters to fully understand the voting process since there will be one-on-one dialogue between a voter and a civic educator.
MEC Director for Media and Public Relations, Sangwani Mwafulirwa said MEC would intensify its civic education to the electorate.
“We will focus on how to mark correctly for one’s choice on the ballot paper,” he said. “We also expect partners, especially candidates and political parties to help in the exercise,” he said.
The country conducted the first ever Tripartite Election in 2014 where 5, 153, 993 votes were cast, according to MEC.
The figure represented 66.99 per cent of registered voters.
Of the total number, 121, 170 declared null and void, representing 2.35 percent.
About 6.8 million eligible voters have registered for the May 21 Tripartite Elections, according to MEC.
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