Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has announced that supplementary voter registration for the September 2025 general elections will run from January 21 to February 3, 2025 targeting all registration centres across the country.
MEC Chairperson, Justice Annabel Mtalimanja disclosed this on Friday in Blantyre during a press briefing, disclosing that the exercise is expected to register between 271,784 and 271,854 people.
“On January 10, the National Registration Bureau (NRB) announced that from the civil registration exercise which took place from October 21 to January 4, the bureau registered 373,996 people. Out of which 70 people are under investigation to see if they qualify for National IDs while 271,784 are already eligible to register with MEC.
“Therefore, MEC is expecting to register between 271,784 and 271,854 people during the supplementary voter registration exercise which will be conducted in three phases with each phase running for two days,” she said.
According to Mtalimanja, the first phase of the voter registration will run from January 21 to 22, targeting Mzimba, Lilongwe, Lilongwe City, Mangochi Municipality, Mangochi, Mwanza, Chikwawa and Nsanje.
“The second phase of the secondary voter registration will run from January 27 to 28, 2024. The voter registration exercises the areas of Nkhatabay, Rumphi, Likoma, Kasungu, Kasungu Municipality, Dowa, Mchinji, Ntcheu, Zomba, Zomba City, Blantyre, Blantyre City, Thyolo and Luncheza. While the third phase, which starts from February 2 to February 3 covers Chitipa, Karonga, Karonga Town, Mzuzu City, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Salima, Dedza, Balaka, Machinga, Chiradzulu, Neno and Mulanje,” she said.
Mtalimanja said the commission has already put all the necessary and adequate equipment and staff in all the centres for the smooth implementation of the exercise.
She, however, emphasized that during the supplementary voter registration exercise, no person will be allowed to register with the NRB if he or she failed to register from October 21 to January 4 with the bureau.
Mtalimanja, therefore, advised the general public to continue abiding by electoral laws as the country is preparing for the September 16 elections.
The High Court on October 25, 2024 ruled that there should be a supplementary voter registration exercise to address two major issues; eligible voters who did not have access to NRB services during Phase 1 and those in Phases 2 and 3 who applied for national IDs but could not register due to delays in receiving their unique identification numbers.