By close of business yesterday, nine presidential aspirants had collected nomination papers and paid the K10 million nomination fees to Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to contest the September 16 2025 General Election.
A MEC update shows that the nine include incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera who is seeking re-election through the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) ticket and former presidents Peter Mutharika and Joyce Banda representing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and People’s Party, respectively.
Others are United Democratic Front president Atupele Austin Muluzi, former Cabinet minister Kondwani Nankhumwa of the People’s Development Party, former Lilongwe City deputy mayor Akwame Bandawe representing Anyamata, Atsikana, Azimayi and independent candidates Milward Tobias, Revelend Hadwick Kaliya and Adil James Chilungo.
For Bandawe, Tobias, Nankhumwa and Chilungo this will be their maiden appearance on the presidential ballot paper.
MEC said the nomination process runs from June 10 to July 5 and includes pre-inspection of nomination papers for pa Local Government Elections Act percent of the yesterday, political analyst Ernest Thindwa said the competition in the presidential election is between DPP and MCP while the other parties want to use the collection of nomination papers as bargaining strength in alliance talks.
He said: “The other parties have collected nominations not because they are convinced that they can win election but because they want to enhance their bargaining advantage by showing that they are prepared to go it alone in the election.”
Besides presidential candidates, aspirants for parliamentary and local government seats are also collecting nominations from MEC.
