"The drop is due to double registration by most people who did not reveal that they were already registered," chief election officer Roosevelt Gondwe told AFP, saying some 5,7-million Malawians were expected to vote.
The commission sparked uproar recently when it announced that 6,6-million adults out of a population of 12-million had registered for the elections.
The opposition and civil rights groups argued that official statistics had shown that the southern African nation would only attain an adult population of six-million by 2010.
"The commission is doing everything possible to protect our democracy by ensuring a smooth electoral process," Gondwe added.
Gondwe said the commission hired a South African computer firm to "clean-up" the voters roll by removing names of those who had registered twice and also those who had died since the last election in 1999.
"The new figure sounds reasonable," Catholic priest Boniface Tamani, who heads the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) rights group, said.
He said the voters roll will be ready for inspection throughout the country from Friday.
The presidential race will be contested by five candidates.
The four opposition candidates are political heavyweights and their failure to unite will probably tip the scales in favour of economist Bingu wa Mutharika from the governing United Democratic Front. - Sapa-AFP
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