The National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE Trust) says it will deploy 6,331 observers to all 6,331 polling centres across the country as part of its efforts to support free, fair, inclusive and credible general elections next month, Franco Mwachande Jnr reports.
NICE Trust Executive Director, Gray Kalindekafe, made the remarks on Thursday in Lilongwe during the opening of a training of trainers for the elections situation room ahead of the 2025 general elections.
The training was attended by NICE officers, NGO Gender Coordination Network (GCN), UN Women Malawi, Malawi Peace and Unity, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), MHub, the Independent Complaints Commission (ICC) and other electoral stakeholders.
Kalindekafe said that the situation room will collect information from NICE observers nationwide and will include an intervention desk comprising officials from MEC, the police and other stakeholders to address critical issues from polling centres in real time.
“Election observers serve as watchdogs, safeguarding the democratic process to ensure transparency, fairness and legitimacy of the elections. The observers will report any challenges faced on polling day to help authorities find timely solutions,” he said.
He further added that the trust will specifically deploy 509 ward-based observers equipped with tablets to record electoral challenges for immediate action by the authorities.
Meanwhile, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Senior Analyst, Richard Atwaru, emphasized the importance of the training and the critical role observers play in safeguarding election credibility.
He described NICE Trust observers as vital to the process, especially considering that COMESA will not be deploying its own observers this time.
In his remarks, UNDP Malawi Chief Technical Advisor for Elections, Izaak Okeru Otieno, said UNDP has consistently supported Malawi’s elections by providing technical and financial assistance and will continue doing so for this year’s polls.
The two-day training was organized by UNDP through the Malawi Electoral Support Programme (MESP) in collaboration with COMESA.
“Election observers serve as watchdogs.”
Gray Kalindekafe
NICE Trust Executive Director
