Malawi insists ID card compulsory for scheduled biometric voter registration

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has announced that biometric voter registration will begin next month as part of preparations for the country’s general elections slated for September 16, 2025.

MEC Chairperson, Justice Annabel Mtalimanja, made the announcement last Friday as she launched the 2025 election season under the theme “promoting democratic leadership through your vote,” per a post on MEC’s Facebook account.

Mtalimanja said the voter registration exercise will unfold in three phases from September to December, and only those who have a national ID card will be allowed to register, according to Xinhua. The official also disclosed that foreign nationals who have lived in Malawi uninterruptedly for at least seven years are also eligible to register for the upcoming polls.

She added that in preparation for the registration exercise, the election management agency is collaborating with the National Registration Bureau (NRB) to enable Malawians enroll for national ID cards. ID cards in Malawi are issued to citizens who are 18 years of age and above, or those who will be 18 by the day of election next year.

MEC has also been carrying out demos with the biometric voter registration devices supplied by Smartmatic.

Efforts to distribute national ID cards

Last month, the NRB received about one million ID cards which were printed in India, as reported by Nyasa Times. The NRB Principal Secretary, Mphatso Sambo, was quoted as saying that the pre-printing of the cards was done in India to deal with a backlog due to inadequate local production capacity. He mentioned that this is the first delivery of ID cards which are produced oversees after a tender was launched by the NRB to pick a contractor for the production of ID cards ahead of the next general elections. The total cost of the ID card printing project is estimated at $9 million and the firm in charge of the contract is not mentioned.

The NRB official said the ID authority’s efforts to meet the demand for ID cards is in line with President Lazarus Chakwera’s desire to see that citizens obtain the document without any hitches. The President has also directed that the expiry date on the Malawi ID card be removed in order to prevent the government from spending huge sums of money on ID card renewals.

Malawians reject ID card as requirement for voter registration

While MEC has stated clearly that only those with ID cards will be allowed to vote, some groups in Malawi are challenging the decision, saying it will disenfranchise citizens.

One of such pressure groups is “Malawi First, the People First” and its leader, Bon Kalindo, says he will be leading a protest march on August 8 against the issue, Nyasa Times reports.

Kalindo said in a recent press conference that the government must address the political and economic woes plaguing the country at the moment. Among the issues, he said there must be a halt to plans of carrying out voter registration using ID cards only, as announced by MEC. The activist also used his press conference to call for reforms within the NRB to make it possible for more people to easily acquire national ID cards in the country.

In April, lawyers in Malawi also rejected the idea of making of the national ID the only proof of ID for the upcoming voter registration.

A project to introduce a digital ID system in Malawi with the backing of the EU and UNDP was launched in May.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  elections  |  identity management  |  Malawi  |  national ID  |  voter registration