{"id":71459,"date":"2018-11-09T01:21:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T23:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=71459"},"modified":"2018-11-09T01:21:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T23:21:52","slug":"mec-nrb-officials-in-over-missing-genset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/11\/09\/mec-nrb-officials-in-over-missing-genset\/","title":{"rendered":"Mec, NRB officials in over missing genset"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Samuel Kalimira: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Northern Region police have arrested a Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) Biometric Voter Registration Kit operator and National Registration Bureau (NRB) colleague on suspicion that they are connected to the missing of a power generator used for the registration exercise.<\/p>\n

Police have also arrested businessperson Martin Kumwenda from Kazuni who the two allegedly commissioned to find a buyer for the power generator.<\/p>\n

Northern Region Police deputy publicist, Maurice Chapola, has identified the Mec official as Chifundo Macheso, aged 26, while the NRB official is 24-year-old Andrew Magombo.<\/p>\n

Chapola said the two suspects were registering people at Kazuni in Mzimba.<\/p>\n

Chapola said police in Mzimba North confiscated the generator which had been put for sale at Mpherembe Trading Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently pursuing others because our investigation is revealing other names [in connection with the alleged theft]. This was a planned theft and we are going to handle it seriously,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chapola said the suspects will be taken to court soon to answer charge of theft, which is contrary to Section 250 of the Penal Code.<\/p>\n

Macheso comes from Wisiki Village, Traditional Authority (T\/A) Machinjiri, in Blantyre District while Magombo is from Lununda Village, T\/A Kamenyagwaza in Dedza District.<\/p>\n

Kumwenda comes from Mpherembe in Mzimba District.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago, a biometric registration kit which went missing was found on a train belonging to Vale Logistics which was coming from Mozambique.<\/p>\n

A week later, a laptop and power bank used for the voter registration exercise were reported to have gone missing in Mzuzu.<\/p>\n

The missing of registration equipment has attracted public attention, with stakeholders suspecting rigging, raising questions about Mec\u2019s ability to conduct a free and fair election next year.<\/p>\n

However, Mec has continuously assured people that no voter registration data had been tampered with.<\/p>\n

The developments have sparked public outrage with various quarters calling for the resignation of Mec Chairperson Jane Ansah.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some opposition political parties have also demanded explanations on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Samuel Kalimira: Northern Region police have arrested a Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) Biometric Voter Registration Kit operator and National Registration Bureau (NRB) colleague on suspicion that they are connected to the missing of a power generator used for the registration exercise. Police have also arrested businessperson Martin Kumwenda from Kazuni who the two allegedly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71463,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459\/revisions\/71463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}