Mhone calls on Human Rights Defenders to safeguard the electoral process

A senior Citizen of Malawi Willard Mhone, has called on all opposition parties and Human Rights Defenders registered in Malawi to take immediate action to safeguard the electoral process, data should be rigorously verified to prevent any discrepancies or “cooking” of figures in the run-up to the 2025 general elections.

There have been warning signs from August 2023 where some people were allegedly assigned to go into each and every village registering national Identity Card numbers for the dead, and no one to this day knows the purpose for the exercise which was undertaken.

During the voter registration exercise by the NRB, there have been concerns from all walks of life that faulty cameras were planted in the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Regions of Malawi so that in these regions fewer people are registered.

In the Central Region of Malawi, there have been alarms of children under the age of 14 to have found their way in as registered voters for the National IDs on the claims that they have reached 16 years of age, but the concerns landed in the deaf ears of the authorities.

The NRB has just released data collected for projected versus registered numbers, the two are not matching prompting many Malawians to rise on their feet pointing at the NRB for carrying out its mandate as the puppet of the MCP to rig the 2025 elections.

Willard Mhone has urged all political parties to collaborate and remain vigilant against any attempts to undermine the electoral process saying transparency, accountability, and fairness are essential to the conduct of free and fair elections.

Mhone has demanded the relevant authorities including the MEC and the NRB to take immediate steps to address these allegations and ensure that all voter registration processes are conducted with the highest level of integrity and transparency.

He called upon Malawians to work together to safeguard the hard-won democracy and ensure that the 2025 elections are conducted fairly, transparently, and free from manipulation advising political parties in Malawi to take several actions to address the alleged manipulation of voter registration data.

The Senior Citizens of Malawi have noted with great concern that such actions aimed at the manipulation and inflation of voter registration figures by the NRB to rig the elections in favor of the ruling MCP are a grave threat to the democratic progress in Malawi.

“The integrity of our elections must be preserved to ensure that the will of the people is accurately reflected in the outcome, and manipulating voter data to favor any political party, is an unacceptable practice that undermines the foundation of our democracy,” reads Willard Mhone’s writings on the wall.