Malawi has started registering voters for the upcoming 2025 national polls. The elections which would allow the people to chose their leaders have been set for September 16. The voter registrations have started in all the parts of the nation however, the turnup of new registrants has caused concern.
The members of the community failed to turn up for the voter registration for 2025 polls Mzuzu on Monday. The first day of the registration witnessed a small number of people coming to the designated centers.
Voting is a right that is given to all sound minded individuals in a democracy. It is the duty of the people to make sure that they utilize this right for the good of the nation.
The right to vote for their representatives puts significant power in the hands of the people. They are responsible for choosing the people who would govern them and work for the betterment of the nation.
The venues which had been turned into voter registration centers include St. Peters Primary School, Mzuzu Stadium and Malawi Housing Corporation . These registration centers are all situated in the Mzuzu City South East Constituency.
The members of the media, who visited the centers, reported that the Elections Management Device (EMD) operators were sitting idle. This was because, no people had come to the centers for the registration process.
Supervisor for St. Peters Primary School, Norah Gondwe spoke to the reporters of Malawi News Agency. He informed them that the officers at the center had registered 29 people since morning.
“Most of the people we have registered came before noon,” said Simfukwe, adding that people had stopped coming in the afternoon.
The situation was similar at Mzuzu Stadium and Malawi Housing Corporation centers. At these centers EMD operators had registered 27 and 33 people respectively.
Zambezi Evangelical Ground and Chiputula Primary School centers in Mzuzu City North Constituency witnessed better turnout. According to the EMD operators they had registered 98 and 103 people respectively in both the centers.
District Elections Officer for Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in Mzuzu, Pilirani Simkonda played down the issue of low turnout saying it is normal in the early days of any voter registration exercise.
She said MEC is doing mobilization campaign in the city hence the number of people coming for the exercise will be increasing gradually.
“We are conducting sensitization around the city to ensure that more people register. This was just the first day of the exercise hence it will be too early to judge,” Simkonda said.
She however expressed satisfaction that they had not received reports of faulty machines from any of the registration centers.
Malawi Electoral Commission is conducting the first phase of fresh voter registration from October 21 to November 3, 2024. The councils included in the phase are Chitipa, Karonga, Mzuzu and Nkhotakota, among others.