The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) says it has intensified several interventions to address voter apathy in the June 29 by-elections.
MEC Commissioner Olivia Mchaju Liwewe made the remarks in Blantyre after briefing the district’s elections supervisory team on the June 2021 by-elections.
Liwewe said: “We have enhanced our civic and voter education, again we will be engaging more with our key stakeholders to develop a number of programs aimed at mobilising voters to vote en masse during the polling day.
“The low turnout of voters during by-elections is a worrisome trend and as MEC we are in a process of doing a research to find out causes of voter apathy,” she said.
Liwewe said the commission is optimistic that the research will be able to establish all the root causes of voter apathy during by-elections.
Recently, Chancellor College based political analyst Ernest Thindwa warned that voter apathy will continue to mar by-elections in the country as a lot of voters focus much on presidential elections.
Thindwa stressed that even if the country is to invest more in campaigning and voter civic education it won’t register a bigger change in terms of a higher turnout of voters during by-elections.
Voter apathy marred the March 30 by-elections especially in Balaka Liviridzi Ward where 6,220 people cast their votes out of the initial 24,160 registered voters.
