By George Banda-MEC Stringer
The Malawi Electoral Commission-MEC has disclosed that Blantyre district has registered lowest figures in voter registration in readiness for the May 2019 tripartite elections.
The development follows earlier reports that district has developed strategies to ensure a record high turnout of people during the exercise.
Speaking at a National Elections Consultative Forum (NECOF) meeting in Blantyre on Friday MEC Chairperson Justice Jane Ansah revealed that the district has only registered over 498 thousand eligible voters representing 73 percent of the projected figures.
Ansah said the commission is pleased with the progress of voter registration despite MEC failing to register 100 percent of projection figures in the exercise.
‘’As we are midway through the voter registration we have observed an improvement to the exercise with some districts recording a high turnout and as a Commission we will continue analyzing the results as they come and at the end of the exercise we will come up with decision on the districts which have recorded lowest figures’’ Said Ansah.
Commenting on the development Democratic Progressive Party-DPP Director of Elections Ben Phiri, said political parties should take the blame for failing to woo the masses to go and register enmasse in Blantyre and other districts which have registered low turnout.
He said:” It will be unfair for people to accuse the Electoral Commission for the low turnout that the voter registration exercise is facing; it is the responsibility of all major stakeholders in the electoral process to step up their efforts in encouraging eligible voters to take part in the exercise’’.
Malawi Electoral Support Network (MESN) Chairperson Steven Duwa said the organization is surprised with the lowest voter registration figures in Blantyre despite the district being covered in the fourth phase of the exercise.
According to the MEC chairperson, so far the commission has registered over 3.7 million voters in the four phases of the exercise, with Chikwawa district surpassing expectations recording 94 percent of eligible voters, the highest so far in the exercise which is targeting over 9 Million voters.
