Parties counter voter registration apathy, second phase starts on good note

Political parties have taken it upon themselves to join in efforts to encourage the masses to register  for the 2019 tripartite elections and the second phase of the exercise that started on Friday in Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Mchinji and Dowa districts  has seen  a good number of people turning up to register.

The first phase that covered Kasungu, Salima and Dedza districts,  was marred  by poor civic and voter education, some equipment used in the registration exercise, including generators, also malfunctionwe; frustrating potential viters who had to stand on long queues and, at the end of the day, failed to register as many gave up.

But in the wake of the much publicised voter registration low turn up, parties including Malawi Congress Party (MCP), have taken upon  themselves to sensitise the masses to register to vote.

The exercise is currently being carried in some of the districts regarded as MCP strongholds.

MCP publicity secretary Reverend Maurice Munthali said the party is luring its supporters on the importance of  registering to have their say on the ballot.

“So far the sensitisation is work,” he said.

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah  has said the commission had put in place right channels for mass sensitisation and that sensitisation messages are still being broadcast through several mediums.

A Malawi News Agency report says centers visited  in Mchinji namely  Kamwendo, Guilleme, Kabira, Kadagwantipenya, Chiphala, Mchinji Secondary before noon on the first day of registration on Friday showed that hundreds of people had already registered.

For instance at Kadagwantipenya Secondary School a total of 200 people had already registered while at Mchinji Secondary 156 people had already registered  before Friday noon.

District Commissioner for Mchinji, Rosemary Nawasha said reports from all the centres in six constituencies of the district showed there were no major problems hindering the exercise.

“The District supervisory team has visited most of the centres in the district and they recorded minor problems such as power cables not working in some centres which Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) officials have since sorted out,” she said.

Nawasha said she was optimistic that more people would turn up to register in all the centres in the coming 13 days.

Meanwhile, District Civic Education Officer for NICE in Mchinji, Paul Kanyenda said he is impressed with the turn out in Mchinji.

“We are now collecting data from all the centres in the six constituencies and the results we are receiving show everything is going on well and we are happy with the outcome,” he added.

Mchinji has a projected figure of 336,494 voters expected to cast their vote in next year’s tripartite elections.   The figure has increased from 268, 633 voters in 2014.

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