The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has released a list of District and Constituency Tally centres and registration centres for next year’s general election.

The Commission’s Director of Media and Public Relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa has told us that the release of the registration centers follows the boundary review and registration centre identification exercises.

Mwafulirwa said: “We had to do this exercise following the creation of the new constituents and ward boundaries. So we had to make sure that we have established centres and even realigned all the existing centres to the new constituencies and also ensure that where centres had moved to another constituency because of the new boundary and the people didn’t have a place to vote. We should identify a place for them to vote nearby.”

He added that the total number of the registration centres is 6,344, up from the previous 5,002 in 2019.

“We try to ensure that nobody should walk more than five kilometers before them reaching their nearest voter registration centre. So, we have created almost 1300 new registration centre so the total number of registration centres is 6344.

“These are the centres that we are going to use as we start voter registration for the 2025 general election which is going to commence in September this year,” Mwafulirwa said.

Meanwhile, MEC says the total number of polling stations for 2025 General Election will be known at the conclusion of the voter registration exercise and building of new voter register.

Mwafulirwa has since advised both members of parliament and councillors to continue serving their constituents and wards till the end of their tenure.

“However, regarding the tenure of the MPs, they will continue serving their respective constituencies as was the case in 2019, up to the end of the tenure, which is on July 23, and for councilors it means the up to the end of their term which is April 23, 2025.

“I should also be quick to mention that it should it happen that MCE is required to conduct a by election from now maybe up to 16 September, should an area fall vacant the centres and the boundaries that will be used whether it’s for local government or parliamentary there will be as were in 2019 the new boundaries the new centres we have will be used for the purposes of 2025 elections,” he said.

Malawi has now 229 Parliamentary Constituencies, up from 193 in 2019, 509 Council Wards, up from 462 in 2019, 229 Constituency Tally Centres for receiving and tabulating results from polling stations, 36 District Tally Centres for receiving results from the constituency tally centres and one National Tally Centre for confirming and declaring official election results.