By George Mponda

Karonga, April 23, Mana: National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust has urged Karonga based civil society organizations (CSOs) to raise awareness of new electoral laws as the country prepares for 2025 General Elections.

Speaking on Tuesday during a meeting with representatives of the CSOs, NICE Trust Programmes Officer for Karonga, Mabvuto Mkandawire, said most stakeholders are not aware of the new laws, especially the change of polling hours.

"A lot of voters were during the recent Local Government by-elections in the district turned back as they did not observe polling time. They did not know that polling time was rescheduled to 6am to 4pm not 6am to 6pm, as was in the case in the past.

“Hence, the need for CSOs which have been oriented on the newly gazzetted ward and constituency boundaries, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Calendar for the 2025 General Election and Political Parties Act of 2018 to help in creating mass awareness on the development," said Mkandawire.

In his remarks, District Elections Officer for Karonga, Elias Nyirenda, bemoaned a tendency by some attendees of such meetings who do not pass on information to the citizenry.

"The 2025 General Election will follow the new laws; therefore, it is essential that voters are made aware of the laws," Nyirenda said.

Chairperson of Karonga CSOs Network, Edgar Phiri, said that the organizations should be proactive in awareness creation for the elections to be credible and peaceful.

"We also appeal to MEC to present the laws in vernacular languages so that people in Karonga and the country as a whole understand them,” said Phiri.