The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties has fined eight political parties not represented in Parliament for violating provisions of the Political Parties Act (PPA) of 2018, including lack of traceable physical addresses.
The parties face fines ranging between K3 million and K5 million for contravening Section 18 of the PPA and have 30 days to regularise their records and offices or face an additional K500 000 penalties for each day of non-compliance and deregistration.
The affected parties are Assembly for Democracy and Development, Mbakuwaku Movement for Development, Patriotic Citizens Party, Nationalist Patriotic Party, Liberation for Economic Freedom Party, Umodzi Party, Nzika Coalition, Anyamata Atsikana Azimai and Solidarity Alliance.
way to go. | Nation
In an interview yesterday, registrar Kizito Tenthani said his office was verifying registered offices, lists of office bearers, book-keeping and financial records as well as the parties’ performance in the previous general elections.
He said the exercise also involved verifying membership and asset registers and the status of key registered documents.
“At this point, from what we have seen from this initial inspection, we have a long way to go. The verification established that most political parties do not have any office at all,” said Tenthani.
He said the office will begin a similar exercise for parties with parliamentary representation on September 28.
Section 16(1)(b) of the PPA mandates the registrar to deregister a party that, after two general elections, fails to secure a parliamentary seat, five percent of national parliamentary votes, two local-government seats or 10 percent of national local-government votes.
Centre for Multiparty Democracy executive director Boniface Chibwana said political parties struggled to maintain proper registers without adequate and properly remunerated personnel.
Electoral and identity politics expert Ernest Thindwa said failure to update party particulars indicated weak or inadequate organisational capacity, adding that smaller parties were likely to be disproportionately affected by the law.
“Not only do they lack both organisational and financial capacity to comply, unlike major parties, they are also the least equipped to defy compliance; a practice prevalent among political agents,”he said.
Other parties without parliamentary or local government representation are Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde), People’s Transformation Party (Petra), Peoples Progressive Movement and Muvi Wachilungamo Revolution Party.
Parties with parliamentary representation are Alliance for Democracy, United Democratic Front, Malawi Congress Party, Democratic Progressive Party, People’s Party, Freedom Party, UTM Party, National Development Party and People’s Development Party. Odya Zake Alibe Mulandu Party has councillors.
In an earlier interview, Tenthani said the inspections examined the parties’ internal governance structures, financial management systems, administrative practices and compliance with statutory requirements and want to ensure that political parties continue to meet their legal obligations after registration.
Political Science Association of Malawi spokesperson Mavuto Bamusi welcomed the penalties, saying enforcing compliance is necessary to strengthen the country’s multiparty democracy.
The penalties come against a background of a growing number of registered political parties, some of which have struggled to demonstrate visible structures and sustained political activities. As of April 2025, there were about 23 registered political parties in the country.
Enacted in 2018, the Political Parties Act established the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties and mandates all political parties to register formally and adhere to strict regulations or risk deregistration.
