Malawi begins biometric voter registration pilot to test new system

A trial voter registration process will begin in Malawi tomorrow September 13 to put the country’s new Electoral Management Device (EMD) system to test.

The Chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), Justice Annabel Mtalimanja, made the announcement recently in a press conference in which she gave details on preparations for the September 2025 general elections.

The EMDs are hand-held biometric devices acquired to replace the Biometric Voter Registration Kits deployed for the country’s 2019 and 2020 elections. They will be used for key activities including voter registration, voter transfer, voter verification, and results transmission and management.

Mtalimanja explained that the pilot voter registration will take place in selected centers and councils around the country, but the data collected will not be added to the final electoral database.

Malawians who are 18, or will attain that age by the day of the election, are eligible to participate in the exercise and the MEC says it has advised “political parties to mobilise their followers in the targeted areas to participate in this exercise.”

Once the trial voter registration exercise is over, the actual process will begin where eligible citizens around the country will be expected to enroll their names on the electoral register, she told Malawians. The actual voter registration will take from October 21, in three phases, the last of which will close on December 11.

The first phase of the biometric voter registration pilot, which targets four councils, is scheduled for September 13 and 14, while the second phase will run from September 18-19, targeting another four.

“The primary purpose of this pilot exercise is to test the newly adopted voter registration system using the Election Management Device (EMD), identify any operational challenges, and ensure that all logistical and technical arrangements are in place for a successful national voter registration process,” the MEC Chairperson said in her address at the presser. She did not mention the company supplying the new system.

Mtalimanja went on that for the purpose of the pilot, the elections agency will accept three categories of credentials as proof of identity, and they include a valid national ID card, an expired national ID card or a system-generated receipt issued by the National Registration Bureau (NRB) which bears the unique national identification number of the person.

In the course of the pilot, the MEC says NRB teams will be handy at registration points to promptly address all concerns relating to the identification of registrants, except issues of fresh registration.

“The Commission has engaged the NRB to deploy a team at every registration center for this pilot voter registration. The NRB teams will be available to address any challenge that might arise with the identification document of a potential registrant. The NRB teams will be able to produce a system-generated report bearing details of the registrant which will be used for the voter registration,” said Mtalimanja. The MEC has insisted in the past that only national ID cards will be used for the actual voter registration, a decision which has sparked criticism.

Ahead of the pilot, the MEC says it has held talks and made engagements with all relevant stakeholders in the country, including political parties, council executives, civil society representatives and the media, to ensure that the process unfolds smoothly.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  elections  |  Malawi  |  pilot project  |  voter registration