The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says inspection of the voters’ registration exercise will start next week.
This is according to MEC Chief Elections Officer Sam Alfandika who said the inspection exercise will run from December 10, 2018 to January 9, 2019.
Alfandika in a press release dated December 5, said during these inspection exercise, centres will be opening from 8.00AM to 4.00PM including lunch hour and weekends.
He added that the centres will also run for full hours during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is informing all registered voters, political parties, civil society organisations and the general public that inspection of the voters’ register exercise will run from December 10, 2018 to January 9, 2019.” Announced MEC.
The Chief Elections Officer further said that the exercise will run in four phases of five days each and the first phase starts on December 10 to 14 in Kasungu, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Dowa, Salima, Mchinji and Dedza.
The second phase will commence on December 18 to 22, 2018 and the councils to be covered are Lilongwe, Lilongwe City, Ntcheu, Blantyre, Blantyre City, Mwanza and Neno, Nsanje and Chikhwawa.
Later on, the third phase will run from December 26 to 30, 2018 in Mangochi, Mangochi Town, Balaka, Machinga, Zomba, Zomba City, Chiradzulu, Thyolo, Luchenza Municipality, Phalombe and Mulanje.
The last phase wil commence on January 5 to 9, 2019 and councils to be covered are Chitipa, Karonga, Rumphi Nkhata Bay, Likoma, Mzuzu City and Mzimba.
The Commission also announced that registered voters will also be able to verify their details by sending an SMS with their voter number to 5VOTE (58683), a free of charge facility available to TNM and Airtel subscribers only.
“Users will not be required to have airtime in their mobile phone. If there are errors in the registration information or the system responds that the details are not available, voters, are encouraged to visit the centre where they registered,” added Alfandika.
MEC has since appealed to all candidates and political party leaders that they should encourage their members to go for voter verification.
