Malawi govt rubbishes Zimbabwe Independent's Nikuv story

Malawi government has sharply rebutted reports in Zimbabwe media that President Joyce Banda has roped in President Robert Mugabe's government and shadowy Israeli security company Nikuv International Projects to computerise the country's home affairs department and supply voter registration cards as the country prepares for general elections in 2014,

Minister of Information and Civic Education Moses Kunkuyu said the story has no grain of truth, saying the Banda government will launch "an official protest over the article through the Zimbabwe government."

The story in Zimbabwe Independent says the Mugabe government through the Registrar-General (RG)'s Office Tobaiwa Mudede was hosting the Nikuv personnel in providing computer service that was used for rigging elections.

To this effect, the newspaper says its investigations have shown that President Banda has now sent a Malawian team for attachment to Mudede's offices to understudy how they will perform during Malawi's elections next year.

"Malawi has been computerising its systems and this is being done by a foreign company," the newspaper quotes an unnamed Malawian government source.

The report quoted Malawian Foreign Affairs minister Ephraim Mganda Chiume who said :"I know there are people from Malawi's Home Affairs department who have been attached to their Zimbabwe counterparts and this has been an ongoing programme."

Presidential Press Secretary, Steven Nhlane dismissed the story as untrue, saying said President Banda "has no reasons to have such services for the purposes of rigging election."