National Registration Bureau (NRB) says it has resumed registration of national identity cards (IDs) which will be a continuous exercise in all the 28 district councils.
In a press statement signed by the bureau’s spokesperson Norman Fulatira, and made available to The Nation, it indicates that the continuous national identification programme started in January 2018 and it is planning to use post offices as registration points to bring the service closer to the public.
Reads the statement in part: “The NRB in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security is pleased to inform the general public of the commencement of continuous registration for the national identity cards in January 2018 onwards in all 28 district registration offices. Hence, NRB urges all Malawians aged 16 years and above not yet registered to visit the nearest district registration office to be registered for an ID card.”
In May last year, NRB embarked on a mass national registration exercise which ended on November 24. About 9.1 million Malawians registered and the distribution of ID cards is underway.
last year, the national registration exercise sparked a heated debate in Parliament when some opposition political parties demanded clarifications from Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) on the connection between the national IDs and next year’s general elections.
But MEC said it will only use the IDs in the registration of voters for next year’s tripartite elections. n
