A craving for K230 thousand kwacha and a voter registration certificate for the 2019 Malawi Tripartite Elections have landed Tiyanjane Frank from Balaka a 3-year jail sentence.
The 21-year-old man was found guilty and convicted by Balaka First Grade Magistrate for selling his voter registration certificate which contravenes Section 98 of the Malawi elections law.
The Court heard that on 27th October this year, Frank went to Utale trading centre, where he was offering people to buy his registration certificate at a price of K20 thousand.
“Upon hearing that, the person who was approached asked the suspect to wait for his colleagues who does such business.
“However, the person alerted the community Police about the plan.
“When the Police asked him, he accepted that indeed he was selling his certificate which led to his arrest let,” State prosecutor Richard Kandeya told the Court.
Kandeya then pleaded with the Court to hand the convict with a stiffer punishment to send a massage to prospective dealers in voter registration certificates especially as Malawi approaches the 2019 Tripartite Elections.
In his ruling, First grade magistrate Felix Mandala said the act done by the convict is very unfortunate and uncalled for, hence sentenced him to 3 years’ imprisonment with hard labour.
The convict hails from Chiwere village in T/A Mlumbe in Zomba District.
