According to a presser made available to The Maravi Post, The Malawi Electoral Commission was informed by the Malawi Police Service that on 14th February 2019 a man by the name of Mr Manase Jossam was found with materials belonging to the National Registration Bureau (NRB) and the MEC.
Kanengo Police mounted a snap roadblock along Lilongwe Teachers Training College Area. At around 7PM, Mr Jossam failed to stop at the road block and Police Officers followed him and caught up with him in Area 25. His vehicle was searched and they found bulk transparent packets which he could not explain the purpose.
According to the Presser, The Police Officers took him to his house in the same Area where upon searching they found two NRB backpacks containing the following materials belonging to the MEC:
• Twenty monitor IDs;
• Two marked empty envelopes;
• Two Voter Registration Application Book Tracking Forms;
• Two Handbooks for Security Forces;
• Two Handbooks for Monitors;
• Completed Accreditation forms of Party and local Monitors; and;
• Two registration booths.
The Suspect, Mr Jossam told Kanengo Police he bought the backpacks in Nkhotakota for personal use and was not aware of their contents until that time the officers searched him.
The Police are further interrogating him to establish how he got the items and the intention of keeping them. On its part, the MEC is also doing internal investigations using the information from some of the documents to establish the staff that might have used the backpacks during voter registration period.
Note that no voting materials were found among the recovered items as reported by the media. The MEC is assuring stakeholders that these are non-sensitive materials that cannot be used to obtain voter registration or access polling by fraud.
Accordingly, The Malawi Electoral Commission will update the nation on progress made by the Police in their investigations and actions that will be taken.