By Burnett Munthali
On Tuesday, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) convened a meeting with representatives from all 23 registered political parties in Lilongwe to provide crucial updates on the recently concluded voter transfer exercise.
The meeting also covered preparations for the upcoming voter verification and inspection process.
During the session, MEC Chairperson, Justice Annabel Mtalimanja, revealed that a total of 60,761 voters had successfully completed the transfer process to new polling centres.
However, she acknowledged a challenge encountered by the Commission during the process: 19 transfer applications could not be processed due to missing records in the preliminary voters’ register.
MEC had to address this issue promptly, and the Chairperson assured that the missing records for these 19 names had been found and subsequently added to the voters’ register.
To resolve such discrepancies, MEC had undertaken a data quality assurance exercise aimed at verifying the completeness and accuracy of the voter registration data. This step was necessary before making the voters’ register available for public inspection.
The results of this data quality assurance exercise were shared with the political parties during the meeting. The MEC found that 6,288 out of 6,331 registration centres had recorded zero variance between the manually compiled voter statistics and the digital database.
However, 43 centres were flagged for discrepancies, showing a positive variance that amounted to 2,563 voter records that had not been uploaded into the system. These records were therefore omitted from the preliminary register.
The Chairperson clarified that these omitted records had been traced and added to the voters’ register, resolving the issue.
MEC also reassured the political parties and stakeholders that all Form 1A booklets used for storing duplicate voter registration certificates were accounted for, further ensuring the integrity of the process.
During the meeting, it was revealed that following a meeting held on April 2, 2025, the Commission had decided to authorize the ICT Directorate to upload the outstanding voter records into the system.
As a result, the preliminary total number of valid voter registration records now stands at 7,202,756. However, it is important to note that this figure remains preliminary and could change depending on the outcome of the upcoming voter verification and inspection process.
To address the 19 voters whose transfer applications had not been processed, MEC plans to conduct a targeted voter transfer exercise on April 15, 2025.
Those affected will be directly contacted and invited to visit their intended centres to finalize their transfer process. Political parties will also be provided with additional details regarding the specific locations where this exercise will take place.
In line with the provisions of the Presidential, Parliamentary, and Local Government Elections Act of 2023, MEC also confirmed that it is preparing for the inspection and verification of the voters’ register.
The register will be made available to the public, allowing voters, political parties, and other stakeholders to verify the entries and ensure the accuracy of the data ahead of the upcoming elections.
