MEC announces new voter registration figures
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Jane Ansah has announced increased voter registration figures for the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections from 6 856 295 to 6 859 375, representing a 3 080 overall rise.
She made the announcement at a press briefing yesterday in Lilongwe where MEC gave an update on cleaning and inspection of the voters’ register, an exercise the commission conducted to document the actual and final number of people eligible to cast the ballot in the elections next year.
Said Ansah: “The majority of the variations were due to operators capturing registrants using the wrong centre and these were subsequently corrected in the database, thereby moving voters to the correct centre and increasing the count for that district while reducing the count for the erroneous district.
“Today, be assured that of the 6.8 million voters registered by MEC, there are no double registrants because of the biometric system and that we have brought all the data in one central place.”
She said during the exercise, the commission removed 13 244 multiple registrations, and that for all multiple registrants, MEC has maintained the first registration.
“Dedza was a special case. Upon close of phase one of voter registration and after the upload of the data, it was noted that five centres did not reflect any data, while one centre [Mgawi 1] did not upload fully,” said Ansah.
The exercise, which according to MEC chief elections officer Sam Alfandika did not involve political party monitors, has also seen a decrease in registered voters in some districts such as Mzimba, Chitipa, Karonga, Lilongwe, Zomba and Blantyre.
“At the end of Phase 8 of voter registration, when all the kits were in the central warehouse, a second sweep was done on all the kits to ensure that all the data had indeed been collected from the kits.
“This revealed that 653 records had not been captured from various districts in the initial upload and these were brought on board. With the additions of the above voters, the final preliminary figure should, therefore, have been 6 864 756. This is derived from 6 856 295
as reported plus the 7 808 and the 653 records.”
After adding the new figures and removing the multiple registrants, other councils, besides Dedza, which registered an increase in number of registrants include Salima which has registered a rise in figures from 170 427 to 171 929 while Mchinji has also seen a rise from 241 490 to 241 923.
In the Southern Region, Mangochi figures rose from 402 163 to 402 719, Balaka from 155 754 to 156 127 while Mulanje now has 281 873 from 281 167.
MEC said all centre counts can be verified with the manual books where the registrants signed on registration.
Asked to comment on the matter, Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) chairperson Steve Duwa asked for more time to analyse the new figures.
But he wondered why the figure has increased instead of dropping , considering that there were double registrants in some centres.
He said: “If the figure which has been presented comes after the clean-up exercise, then I wonder why it should be rising instead of dropping. I have not yet seen the figures, so I need to see them first.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Nicholas Dausi cut the phone after our reporter introduced himself to get party’s reaction on the matter.
United Democratic Front (UDF) spokesperson Ken Ndanga and interim UTM publicity secretary Joseph Chidanti Malunga did not pick calls for his reaction on the development, while People’s Party (PP) spokesperson Ackson Kalaile Banda could not be reached on his phone.
But Malawi Congress Party (MCP) publicity secretary the Reverend Maurice Munthali said in an interview that the party expected some change in figures.
“As a party, we expected figures to change because there are always anomalies in the process . However, we did not expect figures to be alarming. Even if it is a small figure, that must be justified.”
According to Ansah, some centres such as Mphonde, Mgawi 1, Chilanga, Kanjeza, Mtiwe and Dowela in Dedza had an initial accumulation of 49 voters registered.
This, she said, was an anomaly because some data was not fully retrieved.
But after going through a clean-up exercise of the equipment, it was discovered that the final cumulative figure of voters was 7 808.
She clarified: “At the end of Phase 8 of voter registration, when all the kits were in the central warehouse, a second sweep was done on all the kits to ensure that all the data had indeed been collected from the kits.”
She added that the removal of multiple registrations also contributed to the final count of registered voters which has been finally pegged at 6 859 375.
MEC opened the registration exercise in June this year and it ended on November 9.
