Electoral funding has come under the microscope amid resurfacing concerns from civil society organisations (CSOs) over lack of resources to conduct civic and voter education ahead of the September 16 2025 General Election.
A prominent elections group has since warned that without impactful civic and voter education, the nation may end up with the minority picking the President, members of Parliament and ward councillors as only a small percentage of those eligible to vote could cast the deciding ballots.
The CSOs have since blamed the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) for the situation.
But MEC maintains that financing civic and voter education is outside its electoral mandate, saying the Malawi Electoral Commission Act only empowers the commission to accredit CSOs.
In separate interviews yesterday, Council for Non-Governmental Organisations (Congoma), National Advocacy Platform (NAP) and Mzuzu Civil Society Network (Mcison) said it is high time MEC and government allocated funds for civic education—which has a K30 billion shortfall—rather than leaving it to development partners.
Congoma chairperson Adil Chilungo said ideally, government should have considered CSOs during budget formulation to supplement financing for civic education.
He said: “We first engaged MEC on funding issues when the CSOs were being vetted. Actually, Congoma was not initially involved in the vetting process until we spelt out the anomaly, which MEC duly acknowledged.
“Thereafter, we have been engaging the commission through the National Election Consultative Forum [Necof].”
Mcison chairperson Edward Kantuseya said government has the responsibility to lead in securing electoral funds for CSOs.
On his part, NAP executive director Benedicto Kondowe said without adequate funding for civic education, the country risks having a president elected by the minority as too few people could end up voting in an environment of high voter apathy.
MEC data show that 7 162 217 people have registered, representing just 57.2 percent of those eligible to vote.
Kondowe, who is also Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum chairperson, said: “National Initiative for Civic Education, as a government subvented institution and key player, does not have capacity to cover the whole country.
“Government should allocate adequate resources in the National Budget to ensure broad and inclusive voter awareness.”
But in a separate interview yesterday, electoral and identity politics expert Ernest Thindwa dismissed fears that in the absence of effective civic education, the country would elect a leader with a minority vote.
He said there is a legal framework that says a President should get 50 percent plus one of the votes.
He advised CSOs to be creative in mobilising resources, saying for too long, most CSOs have relied on the United States Agency for International Development whose suspension of aid has hit them hard.
“Yes, CSOs are important, but we cannot claim that there will be voter apathy or elect a President by a minority because CSOs are not active. Legally that is not possible using the current legal framework. CSOs should not use that as an excuse to attract funding,” he said.
MEC budgeted for an overall funding of $184 million (about K319 billion) in the three-year electoral cycle which began in the financial year 2023/24.
As of now, development partners have contributed $8.3 million (about K14.3 billion) through the United Nations Development Programme Malawi Electoral Support Project Basket Fund.
The fund is supporting the electoral process, including delivering integrated civic and voter education implemented by six Malawian CSOs.
The commission on July 17 2024 announced that it had accredited 116 CSOs to do civic education in the run-up to the elections.
But both NAP and Mcison agree that there are indications that donor priorities are shifting, leading to reduced funding for CSOs in electoral activities.
In a written response yesterday, MEC director of media and public relations Sangwani Mwafulirwa said while they acknowledge concerns about resource constraints, MEC does not have a mandate to provide direct funding or sub-grants to CSOs.
He said electoral funding primarily comes from government’s allocations and development partners.
