Malawi govt officials confiscate national IDs to present others from registering in voters roll

Pollster Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has confirmed that some ministry of Agriculture extension workers are confiscating national IDs for some people in Lilongwe on the pretext that they want to be registered for farm input subsidy program (fisp).

MEC chief elections officer Sam Alufandika said his office communicated the matter with the principal secretary and the national IDs are being returned.

“I think the national IDs are being returned therefore those who get them should go and register now before the exercise finishes on August 12,” said Alufandika.

Alufandika said no one is supposed to keep someone’s national ID, saying this was illegal.

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka said this was part of rigging that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is now engaged.

“They want to defranchise some voters. They want people not to register and vote for the MCP. How can they take away the national IDs for fisp registration when people in Lilongwe are registering for the voter registration,” said Mkaka.

Mkaka said he had evidence and pictures of agriculture officials taking away the national IDs from unsuspecting people in Lilongwe.

But the DPP spokesperson Nichalas Dausi distanced his party from the allegations.

“If they have evidence, let them report the matter to police or they can go to police. This is just one of the wild allegations against the DPP,” said Dausi.

This comes barely weeks after Saulos Chilima and leader of the newly launched United Transformation Movement (UTM) said he had uncovered plans of the DPP to rig the 2019 tripartite elections.

Minister of Agriculture Joseph Mwanamvekha said the police have arrested one ministry official for confiscating the national IDs.

Mwanamvekha said the ministry did not give any order for its officials to confiscate the national IDs.