Four opposition political parties represented in Parliament risk being caught napping as they are yet to conduct primaries ahead of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) presentation of nomination papers to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) by the parliamentary candidates from June 10.
UTM Party, People’s Party (PP), United Democratic Front (UDF) and Alliance for Democracy (Aford) earlier indicated that they would hold primaries within the first quarter of the year to identify parliamentary candidates ahead of the September 16 General Election.
The UDF earlier started holding primaries, but suspended the process and is yet to announce fresh dates.
To date, it is only the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) that are busy on the ground holding primaries in the 229 constituencies nationwide.
In an interview yesterday, UTM Party secretary general Willet Karonga said the party was still strategising on the elections, adding that the primaries would be held anytime this month.
But he could not be drawn to provide more details on the primaries, saying the party was finalising preparations.
“Once we have finalised the processes I will give you the details,” said Karonga.
In a separate interview, PP secretary general Ben Chakhame said the party is scheduled to hold the primaries next week, although the actual dates are yet to be set.
He said PP was collecting information on constituencies where it will need to conduct primaries, but stated that candidates in 80 constituencies will go unopposed as other aspirants withdrew to pave the way for potential candidates.
“Most people decided to contest at ward level after noting that there were other potential candidates,” said Chakhame.
He also said PP was strategising to avoid fielding candidates in constituencies where its potential alliance partners have strong representatives.
Chakhame said PP was in alliance with the People’s Development Party (PDP), People’s Transformation Party (Petra), Freedom Party (FP) and Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde) and they aim to work together even at constituency level.
In a separate interview, UDF spokesperson Dyson Jangia said the party hopes to conduct primaries within this month, but that the party is assessing the situation to check places where there are no competing candidates.
Meanwhile, political analysts have observed that the delays could point to a lack of resources that is typical of parties that are not in government.
In an interview, political analyst George Chaima said it was difficult for parties that are not in government to raise resources; hence, the delays.
He said the pressure for alliances is also contributing to the delays, but warned that further delays could cost the candidates votes.
Said Chaima: “The parties will field a candidate they view as strong in a particular area to help them bring votes for the alliance rather than fielding for convenience sake.”
Another analyst Wonderful Mkhutche said the delays could be a sign of poor preparation and resource challenges.
He said the move by MCP and DPP to hold primaries early shows the seriousness of the parties with regards to the coming elections.
Said Mkhutche: “It is a huge disadvantage for the other parties to delay the primaries because when you have candidates in place in good time, you give them ample time to campaign. With the delays, the parties may not have a good number of MPs.”
He also cautioned parties that have not held primaries against taking on board candidates that have failed in other parties as their candidates, saying it is important for the parties to build their own candidates.
In the September 2025 General Election, the number of constituencies have increased to 229 from 193 in the 2019 elections following a constituency boundary redemarcation exercise.
During the 2019 elections, DPP fielded 192 and MCP had 189 candidates while UTM had 191, UDF 124 and PP 81.
