About only 32 percent of voters have verified their names and registered to vote in the Nsanje Lalanje ward in Nsanje district.
This was disclosed when the Chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Justice Chifundo Kachale visited Nsanje to inspect the progress of voter verification and registration in Nsanje Lalanje Ward ahead of the by elections slated for June 29th 2021.
Justice Kachale said the turn up of voters in the verification and registration exercise is worrisome because the area registered over 17 thousand voters.
“It’s a worrisome trend because in a sense we feel that people don’t fully recognize and appreciate that Councillors are very important in governance and decentralization,” said Kachale.
Kachale said that his assessment of the turn out of people in the centers he visited is a mixed bag with some indicating a higher percentage than others.
“We would like to intensify our voter education for people to know the importance of councillors. Now that we have a Research Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate we plan to do a proper research to establish the behavior of the voters,” said the Chairperson.
During the visit, the Chairperson has visited centres at Magoti, Lalanje, Nyamitalala, Nkhadzi, Mwachedwa, and Bangula primary schools
The ward fell vacant following the death of Councillor Hashim Chimuti of the DPP earlier this year.
The ward has 17,306 registered voters.
Registration and verification of voters for the by elections started on the 26th May 2021 and closed Yesterday.
