Mess over missing biometric registration kit: NRB awaits report from MEC

National Registration Bureau (NRB) says it has asked the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to give a report on how a biometric registration kit went missing and was found in Mozambique.

NRB spokesperson Norman Fulatira said the biometric registration kit, which the NRB initially used to register people for the national identity cards, was donated to MEC for voter registration exercise.

“We had 2 000 of these kits which we donated to various government departments including ministry of Health and the Malawi Electoral Commission after the ID registration exercise ended,” said Fulatira.

He said MEC replaced the national ID registration software with the vter registration software.

“The kit went missing under the care of the Malawi Electoral Commission, this is why we are interested to know what happened. We are expecting a written report from them,” said Fulatira.

“I can confirm that it is our machine which went missing,” he said.

Fulatira said MEC are “custodians” of every equipment that is being used in the voter registration exercise and that they are thebones handling the logistics.

“MEC can ably explain how this whole thing happened,” he addes.

Fulatira could not give more details on the matter; if it was possible to rig the elections or register people outside the MEC authority, saying details would be known after getting a report on the matter.

The biometric registration kit was discovered in a train in Mozambique, raising suspicion that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party  (DPP) might have smuggled it outside the country for purposes of voter rigging, a claim vehemently denied by MEC officials.