Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) have submitted reports to the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties on how they used State funding during the 2019-2025 Parliament cohort.
The parties’ move comes after Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani on September 30 2025 gave the two up to October 31 2025 to submit final accounts of the State funding they got for the period.
Section 25 of the Political Parties Act (PPA) says a party that received State funding should submit financial books and records, no later than 21 days before the elections and that audited reports be submitted within 14 days after the election.
In a written response yesterday, Tenthani said DPP submitted its State funding accounts, but remained with accounts for the 2024/25 financial year.
He said MCP submitted draft reports for previous years, which are yet to be finalised and that “just recently” the party submitted a draft for 2024/25 financial year.
Tenthani was previously on record as having stated that MCP received K352 million while DPP got K360 million from the public purse between 2019 and 2024.
In separate letters last month, the registrar also gave six of the country’s political parties a deadline of October 31 2025 to declare donations used during conventions and the campaign period for the September 16 General Election.
The parties are DPP, MCP, UTM Party, Alliance for Democracy (Aford), People’s Party (PP) and United Democratic Front (UDF).
But Tenthani yesterday said his office has not received any declarations on convention and campaign financing from Aford, UTM, UDF and PP.
He said: “For State funding, DPP have asked for a one-week extension to submit accounts for the remaining year together with declarations of funding for their convention and election campaign.
“MCP submitted another draft for 2024/25 financial year together with a draft declaration of their funding for the convention and election campaign expenses. This morning [Monday] we had a meeting with the party’s representative to give them our initial observation on what they have submitted.”
DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said the registrar was best placed to comment as the party “already sent him a response in writing” on his demands.
UDF secretary general Genario Lemani said in a written response yesterday that they are scheduled to meet the registrar today where they will also be expected to submit their declarations.
PP spokesperson Ackson Kalaile Banda said they will submit their declarations before the deadline on Friday.
However, MCP, UTM and Aford were yet to respond to our queries by press time yesterday.
Malawi Law Society on July 20 and September 30 2021 wrote the Registrar of Political Parties seeking information within 15 days on political party financiers during the 2019 Tripartite Elections and the court-sanctioned June 2020 fresh presidential election.
However, the registrar did not provide the information.
The inaction prompted MLS to seek a judicial review, which the High Court of Malawi granted in May this year.
Section 27 (2) of the Political Parties Act compels political parties to declare to the registrar any donation with a monetary value of at least K1 000 000 from an individual donor.
