By Pemphero Malimba, Innocent Kalikokha & Blessings Gondwe:

The supplementary voter registration exercise, which the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) is carrying out, started on a slow pace in some centres in the country.

For instance, in Lilongwe City, the exercise was marred by low turnout Tuesday.

This was also the case in Mangochi and Chikwawa districts.

Mec is conducting the exercise to cater for people who registered with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) between October 21 2024 and January 4 2025.

The Daily Times visited some centres in Lilongwe City, where it found that turnout was not impressive.

Our crew also found that those who registered with NRB but not within the targeted period were being turned back.

At Mvama Local Education Authority (LEA) registration centre, for example, we found that, by 11 o’clock in the morning, about three people out of about 100 people who are targeted to register at the centre had registered.

At Bwaila Secondary School registration centre, no one had registered by 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

Mvama LEA registration supervisor Patrick Kaunde expressed optimism that people would turn up to register.

“We are expecting people to come; maybe they are targeting to come to register in the afternoon or tomorrow [today].

“Currently, most of the people who are coming here are those that registered before 21 October 2024,” Kaunde said.

One of the women who was turned back for possessing a national identity card that was registered before October 21 2024 and opted for anonymity said she was disappointed to learn that she was not eligible to register.

She said she had hoped that after the extension of the voter registration exercise, she would register to vote.

But one of the people who registered at the centre, Joseph Moyo said he was excited for registering in the exercise.

“I am happy now that I have registered because I will be able to vote for my preferable candidate,” Moyo said.

In Nsanje, there was low turnout.

The situation was made worse by heavy rains.

For instance, at Nyamadzere Model Primary School, traffic was low.

In Mzimba, the exercise started on a low note as a small number of people, sometimes as few as two, turned up at centres, with other centres yet to register a single soul.

For instance, at Endindeni Primary School registration centre in Mzimba Hora Constituency, no one had registered while at Eswazini centre, only one person had registered by 12pm on Tuesday.

Mec supervisor at Endindeni, Hillen Jeka, said registration was for those that registered with NRB but did not get their numbers due to limited time or technical hitches.

On his part, Mec spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said the exercise had started well.

“We have opened all centres that we wanted to open. So, our appeal is for e