The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has dismissed reports that its employee stole the voters’ roll.
MEC’s reaction comes after Hanleck Bwetule, who is working as a temporary data entry clerk, allegedly stole the external hard disk.
“The commission would like to inform the public that the external hard disk which was [allegedly] stolen by Mr. Hanleck Bwetule, who was working as a temporary data entry clerk, did not contain the voters’ roll. The external hard disk was used within the ICT Department for transferring of documents from one computer to another and not storage of the voters’ roll,” said the statement by chief elections officer Willie Kalonga.
Kalonga said the voters’ roll containing information of the 7.5 million registered voters cannot fit into an external hard disk of 500 gigabytes (which was stolen).
He also claimed it was MEC officials, who recovered the external hard disk from Bwetule and, after interrogation, he allegedly confessed to stealing it to make up for deductions which were made due to absconding duties.
Bwetule has since been reported to police, according to Kalonga.
Blantyre Police deputy public relations officer Elizabeth Divala referred the matter to Southern Region police spokesperson Nicholas Gondwa who could not be reached. Gondwa’s deputy, Beatrice Mikuwa said she was out of office.
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