The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has announced that it is geared to conduct a Pilot Voter Registration (PVR) exercise in eight selected councils.
According to MEC director of media and public relations, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, phase one of the exercise will commence from 13-14 September 2024, and the targeted places are; Balaka, M’mbwelwa, Dedza district councils as well as Blantyre and Mzuzu city councils.
Mwafulirwa adds that phase two of the exercise will run from 18-19 September 2024 and will be carried out in Chitipa, Neno, and Nsanje district councils as well as Lilongwe city council.
All registration centres will be operational from 08:00 am to 4:00 pm and shall remain open during lunchtime.
Registrants willing to take part in the exercise are therefore advised to bring with them a valid national identity card, a national identity card bearing an expired date or a system-generated receipt issued by the National Registration Bureau (NRB) that contains the unique national ID number of the person.
However, he emphasized that registrants will not be able to own the voter registration certificates.
“The registrants will be allowed to appreciate how the voter registration certificates look, but they will not be allowed to take it home with them. The certificates will be retained by the registration staff,” Mwafulirwa said.
Meanwhile, the Commission is appealing to all the registrants willing to take part in the pilot exercise to go and register when the fresh registration exercise will start.
Recently, MEC Chairperson, Justice Annabell Mtalimanja, told electoral stakeholders in Lilongwe that the exercise aims to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the registration process while identifying and resolving any technical glitches that may arise on the electoral devices with the core aim of refining the system in readiness of the actual registration exercise
