MEC impresses Botswana on voter registration

A delegation from the Independent Electoral Commission Botswana has expressed its satisfaction      with what it has learnt from Malawi during its four-day benchmark visit.

The seven-member delegation was in Malawi from 11^th to 15^th February 2023 to benchmark on electronic voter registration as they prepare to hold their elections later this year.

Speaking after their visit to Malawi, the leader of the seven-member delegation, Ms Doreen Seremula thanked the Malawi Electoral Commission for positively responding to host them.

Ms Seremula, who is also the deputy (executive) secretary for IEC Botswana said they settled for Malawi because they can easily relate the experiences to their countries.

She said their visit had been successful as they a learnt a lot on how Malawi migrated to the biometric voter registration, capture field details and process them to mold the voters’ register.

“Botswana is in the process of introducing electronic voter registration for improved efficiency and credibility of its elections. The purpose of the benchmarking exercise is to gain in-depth understanding on the automation of electoral processes particularly capturing of voter registration information, data security and quality management,” she said.

In his remarks, MEC Chief Elections Officer, Mr Andrew Mpesi said the visit by Botswana was inline with the principles of peer learning which is encouraged among SADC electoral management bodies.

“As a sister electoral management body we are happy to share our knowledge and experience so that we also contribute to the improvement of election management in the region,” he said.

Malawi migrated to the biometric voter registration five years ago a move which was a landmark achievement as it resulted in having a very credible voters’ register in preparation for the 2019 elections.

In the past the voters’ register was characterized with spelling mistakes, transposed names, names with wrong corresponding pictures, names missing or being found at wrong centres, among others. And because of biometric details, it was easy to check for and delete double registrants.

Malawi has also hosted delegations from Uganda and Lesotho on learning visit on how to do civic and voter education.