Voter registration to continue as COVID-19 cases rises

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The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says the second phase of voter registration for presidential fresh election will be conducted from 27 April up to 10 May 2020.

This comes after phase one ended prematurely due to declaration of lockdown which did not take its effect following the injunction order by the HRDC.

In a statement, the Chief Elections Officer for MEC, Sam Alfandika said people aged 18 and above or who will attain voting age by 11 June 2020, will be allowed to register including those who did not register during the 2019 tripartite elections as well as three by-elections held thereafter.

Alfandika also said that those who already registered in 2019 elections are not supposed to register again but if they have changed residences, should take their voter certificates and report to the new centres they belong to process transfers.

Similarly those who lost their voter certificates should go and get duplicate certificates at the centre they registered.

He further said that new registrants must carry their national ID when going for voter registration, and for those without IDs, NRB team has been placed in each and every ward to conduct national registration for all prospective voter registrants without national IDs.

Areas to be covered in the second phase include; Rumphi, Likoma, Dowa, Lilongwe District, Lilongwe City, Luchenza Municipality, Phalombe, Mulanje and Thyolo.

MEC will also revisit the councils covered in phase one to ensure that all registration centres have run for a minimum of statutory period of 14 days.

The commission’s request to suspend electoral activities over COVID-19 was rejected by a court last week. On Thursday, the number of cases in Malawi jumped to 33 after 10 cases were confirmed.

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