By Watipaso Mzungu

The Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) and Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) have agreed to take stringent and decisive measures for achieving free, fair and credible General Elections on 16 September 2025.

CMD is a membership organization principally for political parties who are represented in the National Assembly of Malawi. However, in order to achieve inclusivity, the membership is extended to non-parliamentary parties, who are represented on the CMD Board as a block.

Prior to Christmas festivities, CMD convened an interface meeting with MEC officials to brainstorm on how to address concerns political parties have been raising regarding the recently ended voter registration phases.

MEC Chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja confirmed the development to Nyasa Times after the meeting, saying the pollster is working closely with CMD to iron out issues stakeholders have been highlighting as the nation is preparing for the elections.

“This meeting was called or convened for the Commission to interact with CMD considering the just completed voter registration generated concerns from some stakeholders. We needed to address the concerns that the political parties had in terms of voter registration. So, this meeting was convened to provide an opportunity for the CMD to air their concerns, but also the Commission to respond and to deliberate on those as we move forward with the electoral processes,” said Mtalimanja.

The MEC chairperson said although the pollster was impressed with how it conducted the three registration phases, there was still room for improvement.

Mtalimanja said they were particularly concerned with the low turn-outs during all the three phases.

“As you observed, phase one was 65%. We would have wanted a higher number. Obviously, same for phase two, we were hovering around 61% or thereabouts. We would have wished for a higher turnout. But registration is voluntary. At the end of the day, we conducted our civic and voter education initiatives to advise the people and to inform them that voter registration is going on and the centers were open, all the facilities were available, but at the end of the day, registration is voluntary, so we cannot force people to come out to vote or to register,” she explained.

In his remarks, CMD chairperson Dr. Elias Chakwera, representing the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), said political parties were impressed with the steps MEC are taking to ensure the country achieves free, fair and credible General Elections.

“You will recall that during the first phase, there was a court order which needed the presence of NRB to be in the same place and register people who ordinarily would not have had the opportunity to register for voting. So in response to that, MEC has told us that it will go back to the first phase and the register those who were not given the opportunity to have the IDs and be able to register. Secondly, they also want to do the same for the second and third phase, but targeting those people who might have registered with make but maybe we’re not giving it the unique number that would allow them to register for voting.

“So, this means that as they plan, they would like to rely on the data that the NRB is going to provide them. So essentially, what they have shared with us as a very important point, is that we are going to go for targeted supplementary registration, just for those people who ordinarily could not do it because either the time was shot unique numbers, or those who in the first phase did not have opportunity like what was accorded in the second and third phase,” said Chakwera.

“So generally, we are impressed. There could be issues with the individuals, which might be from the perspective of a party or what, but I think as MD, we value the relationship where we are always transparent about what you are doing and you are sharing information, and as long as make and NRB are doing things within the laws, I think we are under obligation to support them because the laws cover every one of us,” he added.

Meanwhile, MEC has officially announced that it will conduct supplementary registration in selected councils under the three phases where voters failed to register for the forthcoming 2025 General Elections.

In phase one, this will be done in five days in Councils targeting onlyeligible voters that registered or would have registered with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) from 21st October, 2024.

Under the second and third phases, this will be done in three councils, targeting only eligible voters who presented themselves at voter registration centres and applied for civil registration with the NRB, but were not issued with their unique National ID number by the close of the voter registration, and were consequently unable to register as voters.

MEC further informed the public that no fresh registration will be undertaken during the supplementary registration under phases 2 and 3.

“During the supplementary voter registration exercise in Phase 2 and 3, there will be no fresh civil registration by NRB at the voter registration centres. However, NRB staff will be present to provide identification and verification services for applicants that will have challenges with their proof of national registration.

“The Commission will issue specific communication regarding the dates and modalities for the supplementary voter registration exercise”. Reads the notice.