Group seeks vot­ing access for pris­on­ers

The Daily Times

By Thomas Kachere

30 Jul 2025

The Centre for Human Rights Edu­ca­tion, Advice and Assist­ance (Chreaa) has called on Par­lia­ment to make spe­cial pro­vi­sions for pris­on­ers and stu­dents regard­ing the voter trans­fer pro­cess.

This appeal aims to ensure that they can par­ti­cip­ate in the gen­eral elec­tions sched­uled for Septem­ber 16, 2025.

In a let­ter signed by Exec­ut­ive Dir­ector Vic­tor Mhango, Chreaa points out the need for the forth­com­ing Pres­id­en­tial, Par­lia­ment­ary and Local Gov­ern­ment Amend­ment Bill to include expli­cit and enforce­able meas­ures enabling full elect­oral par­ti­cip­a­tion for pris­on­ers.

Mhango stressed that many people, who had registered to vote while resid­ing in their com­munit­ies, find them­selves unable to trans­fer their voter regis­tra­tion due to unfore­seen incar­cer­a­tion.

He said this can occur through sud­den arrests, pre-trial deten­tions or short-term sen­tences, often without prior notice, and restricts their abil­ity to apply for voter trans­fer within exist­ing time con­straints.

“Sec­tion 74 of the cur­rent Act excludes these cit­izens from vot­ing. Chreaa has observed grow­ing con­cern among eli­gible inmates about their pos­sible exclu­sion from the elect­oral pro­cess,” Mhango said.

The organ­isa­tion has reit­er­ated that the right to vote, pro­tec­ted under Sec­tion 40(3) of the Con­sti­tu­tion, should be upheld for all Malawians, includ­ing those who are incar­cer­ated.

Mhango added that exclud­ing pris­on­ers with valid regis­tra­tion from vot­ing con­tra­dicts both con­sti­tu­tional rights and Malawi’s inter­na­tional human rights oblig­a­tions.

Chreaa has since recom­men­ded that Par­lia­ment instruct the Malawi Elect­oral Com­mis­sion (Mec) and Malawi Prison Ser­vices to col­lab­or­ate on prac­tical mech­an­isms for facil­it­at­ing vot­ing within pris­ons for eli­gible inmates.

The Chair­per­son of the Human Rights Con­sultat­ive Com­mit­tee, Robert Mkwez­a­lamba, has expressed sup­port for Chreaa’s appeal.

Mkwez­a­lamba is of the view that insti­tu­tions respons­ible for safe­guard­ing demo­cracy must ensure that no cit­izen is denied the right to vote due to bur­eau­cratic chal­lenges.

“Imple­ment­ing these changes will uphold con­sti­tu­tional rights and rein­force pub­lic con­fid­ence in the elect­oral pro­cess,” he said.

Pres­id­ent Laz­arus Chak­wera has called for Par­lia­ment to recon­vene on 5th August 2025 to delib­er­ate urgent issues of national interest.

Chief among them is expec­ted to be the legal pro­vi­sions which now pre­vent registered voters who have been assigned elec­tion-related tasks else­where from vot­ing.