Since June 10 2025, when collection of nominations started for the September 16 General Election, about 1 570 aspirants have shown interest in local government elections while 597 are eyeing Parliament, we have established.
In a survey through 31 district election officers of the 36 councils in the country, it has come out that women, youth and people with disabilities have collected less forms in the exercise that runs up to July 30.
Of the 1 570 aspirants for local government seats, 304 are women, representing 19.5 percent against 1 266 men (80.6 percent). There are 150 youths (9.6 percent) and 28 are people with disabilities, representing 1.8 percent.
The survey, in which we were unable to get results for Luchenza Municipality, Zomba City, Zomba District, Mchinji and Dedza, further showed that of the 597 people vying for parliamentary seats, 157 are women (26.3 percent), 440 men (73.7 percent), while three (0.6 percent) are people with disabilities and 37 (6.2 percent) are youths.
According to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) officers’ tabulations, the youth and people with disabilities were classified as male or female in the final tally.
But, in spite of the low figures, with 73 days before Malawians go to the polls, Women Manifesto Movement co-convener Lingalireni Mihowa and Youth and Society executive director Charles Kajoloweka in separate interviews yesterday said a better assessment would be done at the end of the process, which will lead to the presentation of nomination papers between July 24 and 30.
Mihowa said with the commission extending the period for collection of nomination papers and paying nomination fees, she is confident that more women will join the race.
“A fair analysis will be done when the nomination period is over. We are sure, through our preliminary reviews, that more women were still looking for financial resources to contest.
“We thank MEC for extending the period because we are sure more women will come out,” said Mihowa, adding that they are lobbying more women to contest.
The Women Manifesto Movement champions the 50-50 Campaign, seeking equal representation in leadership positions.
On his part, Kajoloweka, whose organisation is part of the consortium that recently launched the Youth Manifesto, said they have not yet assessed the situation on the ground, but was optimistic things would change.
“We can’t draw substantive conclusion on how things are now because we are still working to assess the situation. We will surely come up with a stand,” said Kajoloweka.
Asked what has contributed to the low turn-out so far, Kajoloweka observed that some youths who were willing to participate may have fallen by the wayside during party primaries.
“The demands of finances to sail through the primaries is not conducive for young people. One can’t be surprised that the youth can shy away because they are grossly marginalised and eliminated,” he said.
In an interview, former president Joyce Banda, the only female presidential aspirant of the 15 who have shown interest to contest, said the political landscape is still hostile to women contestants at all levels.
“Our society remains patriarchal in a way that we talk of things like ng’ombe yaikazi siikoka ngolo. Secondly, women are heavily scrutinised when they want to vie for positions. I am a living example because I was greatly pointed fingers at even for the way I dress. The portrayal of women in the mainstream and social media has more adverse effects on women contestants,” she said.
Our survey also showed that a month down the line, Likoma is the only district where no one has yet shown interest to vie for a parliamentary seat while 13 have collected nomination to contest as councillors in the island district’s four wards.
Interestingly, of the three people with disabilities vying for parliamentary seats so far, two are contesting in constituencies under the Lilongwe District Council.
