CDC, MEC in voter awareness through cinema

Centre for Development Communications (CDC) and Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) are conducting awareness programmes on voter registration to influence people to participate in next year’s elections.

On Friday, they organised community cinema and dialogues in different constituencies in Lilongwe. The major spots were trading centres and among those that attracted huge turnout were Dickson, Kapininga, Malingunde, Chankhuntha, Chiunjiza and Kachumbe.

In an interview, CDC facilitator Gabriel Tengani said MEC and CDC decided to provide civic education to the communities on voter registration through role play and cinema approaches so that people understand fully the registration process.

“As for CDC, we thought cinema is the best way to influence people because they easily grasp the messages when packaged in pictures and visuals than in other forms of communication,” he said.

Tengani said the information is designed to encourage people to go and register to vote next year.

Lilongwe Nsinja North civic and voter registration assistant Bodes Mbendera thanked CDC and MEC for the initiative, saying it will motivate and encourage people to take part in the electoral process.

Group village head Bautala  said: “The cinema programme is helping people to understand electoral processes. Some people were taking old voter certificates to the centres and were sent back.”