By Brenda Kayo:

The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec)’s announcement that 7.2 million people have registered to vote during the September 16 elections has not gone down well with some political parties, whose officials have claimed that the electoral commission systematically “suppressed” would-be voters.

This comes at a time Malawians are planning to vote in this year’s Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections.

Mec Chief Elections Officer Andrew Mpesi indicated in statement that those registered represent 65.7 percent of the population of eligible voters that the National Statistical Office (NSO) projected.

“In comparison with the total number of people in the councils aged 18 years and above in 2025, which according to the NSO is 10,957,490, the number of registered voters in all three phases and supplementary voter registration represents 65.7 percent of the projected population,” Mpesi said.

In a separate interview, Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa indicated that 24,078 people had registered during the supplementary voter registration exercise.

He said out of the 7.2 million people, 3,087,563 are male, representing 42.9 percent, and 4,113,342 are female, representing 57.7 percent.

Mwafulirwa said the figures were preliminary and that the public should exercise caution on their usage.

He said the figures might change considering that the data had not been cleaned.

“The commission wishes to emphasise that these figures are preliminary and that the public must exercise caution on their use since the data has not been cleared . We will be working to clear those that tried to register twice and, for that, the figures will change,” Mwafulirwa said.

Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has expressed dissatisfaction with the voter registration exercise.

It claims that Mec and the National Registration Bureau (NRB) “deliberately suppressed” people from registering.

DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito said the final registration figure of 7.2 million was “not a true reflection of would-be voters” in Malawi.

“Our party’s stand is that both Mec and NRB deliberately suppressed people from registering. Mec did not put much effort into voter sensitisation issues, let alone the voter registration exercise.

“The coming in of the NRB in the registration exercise has made it more difficult for people to acquire the national identity (ID) card, which allows them to register. NRB deliberately suppressed a lot of people from acquiring the national ID by creating unnecessary excuses, thereby directly affecting the voter registration exercise,” Mukhito said.

He also alleged that Mec officials deliberately switched off machines at “crucial times”.

“Mec, on the last day of phase three of the registration