Lilongwe District Commissioner Dr. Lawford Palani has called on people in Lilongwe to go in large numbers to register in order for them to have National Identity Cards in readiness for the forth coming tripartite elections.

Palani made the call on Monday in an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) as National Registration Bureau (NRB) is starting mass outreach registration exercise of IDs in the district from the 15^th of April to 29^th April, 2024.

“This is a rare opportunity that government has given us.  As you may be aware, national IDs these days are very important. They are used anywhere such as in the banks, and it enables one to make different transactions using the ID, so it’s an important document,” he said.

Palani therefore called on traditional and church leaders, Members of Parliament and councilors to take a leading role in informing the people in their areas about this important exercise.

NRB Principal Registration Officer for Lilongwe district Strachan Chisenga said the exercise will target those who have attained the age of 16 and above and even those whose ID cards were lost or stolen will be assisted.

However, Chisenga warned people to stop cheating on age and names saying once such information has been documented it’s for life.

“If you cheat us like you are old when you are young, you should know that such information will have an impact on you in the near future. Even the name should be the correct one, because the name you register on the ID, will be there for life,” he said.

In a separate interview, Monalisa Mbewe from Traditional Authority Chadza in Lilongwe, thanked government for the initiative saying many people more especially those who attained the age of 16 do not have national IDs.

“We are happy to have this opportunity. Some of us registered for an ID two years ago but until today we have not received our national ID. I hope with this exercise we will have our ID’s as soon as possible,” she said.

NRB outreach registration exercise in Lilongwe will run in two phases:  in Lilongwe rural and Lilongwe City. Lilongwe rural alone will have 133 centres, and the people are expected to have their IDs within 30 days.