More political parties await registration
The Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani says it is in the process of registering more new political parties ahead of the next year’s general elections.
But political analysts observed that the new parties will have no great impact in the 2025 General Elections.
In an interview yesterday, Tenthani said 20 political parties have so far been registered in the country and that his office is in the process of registering some more political parties.
However, he could not indicate the exact number of political parties on the waiting list.
Said Tenthani: “So far 20 political parties have been registered and I can confirm that there are more applications that are being processed. So, the 20 political parties that have been registered do not mean we are done with the party registration.”
Out of the 20 registered political parties, about seven are new in the political landscape.
They include Nationalist Patriotic Party, Mzika Coalition, Liberation for Economic Freedom Party, Muviwachilungamo Revolution Party and Peoples Development Party.
Commenting on the new registered parties, political analysts Ernest Thindwa observed that the new parties will bring no much change in the 2025 General Elections.
He noted that only Malawi Congress Party (MPC) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are the remaining relevant political parties which have chances of winning the 2025 elections.
The analyst noted that the country will continue to see the proliferation of new political parties towards general elections.
Said Thidwa: “We should not be looking at the number of registered parties, but we should be looking at the number of the relevant parties. If we are talking about serious parties, they are only two, MCP and DPP. These are the parties that can win an election. The rest I don’t think they are relevant.”
Catholic University of Malawi political science lecturer Chimwemwe Kandodo observed that the proliferation of new political parties is not strange as it has been the trend to see new political parties being registered few months before general elections.
“With the 50+1 system, it means it will be difficult for these political parties to emerge a winner, so they should be thinking of alliances with political parties that have similar ideologies,” she said
