Malawi voter registration begins May for 2019 Tripartite elections

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has disclosed that voter registration in readiness for the polls will commence on May 25.

MEC Commissioner Jean Manthanga said in an interview that preparations for the exercise which is expected to be conducted in six phases are at an advanced stage.

She said the commission is currently training its employees in order to have a smooth operation for the exercise which is expected to start in the central region districts of Dowa, Salima, Nkhotakota, Kasungu and Ntchisi.

Commissioner Manthanga who is also MEC’s Chairperson of the Electoral Services Committee said the use of biometric voter registration system for the 2019 polls will help to address anomalies which the commission was facing during the current registration exercise.

‘’By migrating to the new system from the paper based registration we hope to have a successful exercise which is expected to end by the end of August’’ added Manthanga.

According to Commissioner Manthanga, MEC has also increased a number of registration centers from over 4000 to 50006 centers to enable more eligible voters to take part in the exercise which is targeting over 9 million voters.

Electoral stakeholders have blamed the current manual registration system for irregularities which have perpetually arisen during polling days in the country