PACENET calls for NRB support
Ngwalo: Support NRB
The Pan African Civic Educators Network (PACENET) is appealing to government and development partners to financially support the National Registration Bureau (NRB) with an aim of soothing the national identity card registration process.
The ID cards will also be critical in the voter registration exercise which the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) voter registration.
The appeal came after a high court ruling issued by Justice Mandala Mambulasa ruled against an injunction requested by five individuals who sought to prevent MEC from using the National ID card as the sole form of identification for voter registration.
In his ruling, Justice Mambulasa emphasized that MEC’s reliance on the National ID aligns with the law and does not violate voter eligibility provisions in the Constitution.
Mambulasa, therefore, urged the NRB to ensure that every eligible voter is registered as citizen.
Officials from PACENET called on government, development partners involved in the electoral process and all stakeholders to assist the NRB with financial resources to ease them off some challenges.
The organizations board chairperson Angela Ngwalo said: “Potential voters who missed this opportunity in phase one should be given the chance to be registered by NRB and thereafter with MEC. Denying them this opportunity amounts to a blatant deprivation of their electoral rights.”
She also called on the authorities to attend to the matter with a sense of urgency.
“We appeal to the Government and development partners to urgently support NRB with financial resources to commence implementation of the Court judgement as a matter of urgency,” Ngwalo said.
Meanwhile, the NRB pledged that it will comply with a recent High Court ruling mandating immediate measures to facilitate voter registration for eligible Malawians.
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