MEC goes biometric registration for 2019 Malawi elections

Pollster, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is assuring Malawians of trouble free 2019 elections, hinting registration will be biometric as people will have national IDs provided by the National Registration Bureau.

Nancy Tembo, MEC commissioner said Friday in Blantyre during a stakeholders meeting that the commission will be calling for a national conference in December to tackle all election challenges.

“In February, the National Registration Bureau will be piloting the exercise. The whole national ID project will be rolled out in 2017, giving us enough time to make preparations,” she said.

Tembo said MEC will buy machines that will easily capture details from national IDs that include the contentious nationality and age.

She said the process will also cut down the budget for elections as fewer staff than ever before will e hired for the registration exercise.

Tembo also said a taskforce that has been formed to look into electoral issues will also tackle proposals from Malawi Congress Party(MCP) president Lazarus Chakwera’s proposed legislation of 50-plus-one election victory for a President.

President Peter Mutharika amassed 39 per cent of the six million vote in the 2014 poll that put Chakwera on second position having missed Kamuzu Palace with just a 600000 plus vote to Mutharika.

UDF spokesman Ken Ndanga hailed the meeting saying MEC and other poll stakeholders should always engage in discussion to improve the way elections are managed in the country.

Ndanga said there is room for improvement on the way elections are conducted.