As voting in the by-elections progresses an impressive number of prospective voters have thronged polling centres in Nsanje Central Constituency. There are long lines in various polling centres.
Reacting to the response, one of the presiding officers at Mpatsa Community Day Secondary School, Howard Banda, said they are impressed with large numbers of people who are coming out to cast their ballot. The constituency has two wards and a total of 24,262 registered voters.Four candidates are vying for the position. These are; Kafaninkhale Mandevana of Malawi Congress Party-MCP, Francis Kasaira of Democratic Progressive Party-DPP, Esmy Bande of DEPECO and Mzeru Mybeck of UTM.
The by-elections are being conducted following a High Court judgement which nullified the Parliamentary polls results for the area citing a number of irregularities. In all centers there is strict adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures
The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has provided face masks to needy voters in Nsanje North by-election. Most voters in Nsanje North are observing COVID-19 preventive measures as they cast their vote in the Parliamentary by-election. However, MEC officials are providing face masks for needy voters. Assan Chande, a presiding officer at Chinyanje School Polling Center said apart from providing the people with face masks, they are also asking them to wash hands before going through the voting process. William Chilumpha, another presiding officer but stationed at Fatima CDSS said the voters are also required to practice social distancing.
Last week, MEC announced that it has received about 300,000 face masks from DODMA for the by election.Three people are vying for the position of Member of Parliament for Nsanje North.These are: Patrick Bande an independent candidate, DPP’s Esther Mcheka Chilenje and Enock Chizuzu of MCP.
