MEC says registration kit got missing in OPC truck

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says the biometric kit that was found in Mozambique went missing while being transported in a Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) Tata truck.

The electoral body has also said that it is treating the case as a theft issue.

MEC Electoral Services Committee Chairperson Dr. Jean Mathanga said this during a press briefing held today regarding the missing and recovery of biometric registration kit.

She said MEC usually transports the kits in locked vans but the kits which were being taken to Mwanza were transported in a Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) Tata truck and in the process one of the kits went missing.

“While MEC staff were busy trailing how the kit might have gone missing, the Commission received a report on 29th September 2018 from Vale Logistics that a kit similar to the ones the Commission was using for Voter Registration had been found in Mozambique on one of their coal trains. MEC picked up the kit and confirmed that it was ours. The matter was later reported to the Police,” Mathanga said.

She added that the kit was handed over to technicians who found that a laptop and thermal printer were missing.

The whole kit contains printer, scanner, barcode reader, finger print reader, powerbank, camera, backup drive as its components.

The kit that went missing was allocated to a team that used it at Ndonda School in Kasungu in phase one, then Nthawira School in Ntchisi in phase two and Chauwa School in Lilongwe for phase three. It was supposed to go Mwanza for phase four before it went missing.

However, Mathanga said the data that was registered in the three centres is safe.

“The procedure is that at the end of each phase, the kits are taken to the nerve centre where all the registration data is uploaded into our mobile district servers,” she said.

Meanwhile, the commission has encouraged stakeholders not to raise fear and anxiety with unsubstantiated allegations due to the incident.