Man found with electoral materials at his house

Police on Thursday arrested a man who was found with Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) materials at his house.

The man, Manase Jossam, was found with materials belonging to the National Registration Bureau (NRB) and the MEC on 14th February.

According to the electoral body, Jossam was caught after he failed to stop at a roadblock which police had mounted.

“Kanengo Police mounted a snap roadblock along Lilongwe Teachers Training College Area. At around 7PM, Mr Jossam failed to stop at the road block and Police Officers followed him and caught up with him in Area 25. His vehicle was searched and they found bulk transparent packets which he could not explain the purpose,” says a statement by MEC Chief Elections Officer Sam Alfandika.

The Police Officers took Jossam to his house in the same Area 25 where upon searching they found two NRB backpacks containing twenty monitor ids  two marked empty envelopes, two voter registration application book tracking forms; two handbooks for security forces;  two handbooks for monitors;  completed accreditation forms of party and local monitors; and  two registration booths.

Jossam told Kanengo Police he bought the backpacks in Nkhotakota for personal use and was not aware of their contents until that time the officers searched him.

Meanwhile, the Police are interrogating Jossam to establish how he got the items and the intention of keeping them.

MEC is also doing internal investigations using the information from some of the documents to establish the staff that might have used the backpacks during voter registration period.

According to MEC, no voting materials were found among the recovered items.