Phase four of voter registration ends with low offences – Police

Malawi Police in the Northern Region have said that the phase eight  of the voter registration exercise  which covered Mzuzu City, Nkhata Bay, Likoma and Mzimba has recorded fewer cases of election-related offences as compared to other phases.

Assistant Police Public Relations Officer in the Northern Region, Sub Inspector Maurice Chapola disclosed this in an interview in Mzuzu on Thursday.

“In fact, in this voter registration exercise here in the North, we have registered very few offences to do with the voter registration exercise.  The  main issue was the issue of the MEC gensets which were stolen at Kazuni,” said Chapola.

Chapola disclosed that Police are expecting to arrest more suspects in the ongoing investigations into  the matter in which the MEC BVR kit operator,   Chifundo Macheso,  aged 26 , a National Registration Bureau (NRB) officer,  24 year-old    Andrew Magombo   attempted to sell a MEC generator at Mpherembe Trading Centre through  a business man Martin Kumwenda  whom the two recruited as a middle-man.

Details from Police are that Macheso  and Magombo who were  deployed to Kazuni Centre  between 24 and 25 October found that another full MEC  Kit, comprising of a generator and a solar panel, had already been assigned to the Centre. Although one of the suspects, Macheso, reported to his rsupervisor, Magombo and Macheso  connived to sell the MEC generator.

The three suspects;   Macheso  who comes of  Wisiki Village in Traditional Authority (T/A)  Machinjiri in Blantyre,  Magombo  from Lununda Village in  T/A Kamenyagwaza’s Area in Dedza and Martin Kummwenda from Mpherembe  in Mzimba   are expected to answer charges of theft contrary to  Section 278 of the Penal Code.

Chapola also disclosed  that in Mzimba, a  33 year-old  man, Mustafa Bwaduka   is in Police custody, after being arrested at  Chankhanga Primary School  for  attempting to register twice. Bwaduka  who hails from of Kasalika Village in  T/A  Kaomba’s Area in Kasungu  is expected to appear in court soon.

MEC is expecting to register 9 million eligible voters in the entire 2018  voter registration exercise.  So far  6,264, 183 have already registered in phase one to seven  representing 81 % of the predicted   7,745, 095  for  the first seven phases. Voter registration statistics for the just-ended phase are yet to be released.

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