By Salome Gangire

Neno, September 16, Mana: Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring free, fair and credible general elections scheduled for September 2025.

Speaking on Monday during a briefing to the District Elections Supervisory Team (DEST), Multi-Party Liaison Committee and media on the pilot voter registration, MEC Chairperson Justice Annabel Mtalimanja emphasized that MEC would operate strictly within its legal framework.

She pointed out that the commission would follow electoral laws and regulations to ensure the integrity of the election process.

“We will engage stakeholders to ensure that all our processes are transparent. This will help stakeholders understand what is happening and why, enabling us to deliver free, fair and credible elections,” Mtalimanja said.

She said the briefing was aimed at informing stakeholders about the pilot voter registration exercise which is scheduled for September 18-19, 2024 in two constituencies of Neno South and Neno East but to addresses concerns about how data from the pilot registration would be managed.

“There are fears from some stakeholders that data from the pilot might be transferred to the final voter register. I want to assure you that MEC has established clear protocols on handling pilot registration data and it will be deleted from the system,” the Chairperson said.

She explained the commission's decision to move away from biometric voter registration kits, which have become obsolete since their acquisition in 2017 for the National Registration Bureau (NRB), stating that MEC has now adopted Election Management Devices (EMDs) which are more efficient and technologically advanced.

Secretary General for Umodzi Party in Neno, Matias Kayele expressed gratitude to MEC for the briefing and requested continuous engagement on important developments to foster collaboration and transparency.

MEC is conducting pilot voter registration in eight districts of Balaka, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Chitipa, Neno, Dedza, and Nsanje.

The exercise which began on September 13, 2024, aims at identifying and rectifying potential issues with the new voter registration equipment.