A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) is demanding that Parliament be stripped of its role in disbursing public funding to political parties, a call met with caution from the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).
The CSOs, including Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Chisankho Watch presented the findings at a press briefing in Lilongwe on Wednesday.
The CSOs’ position emerged from a high-level meeting involving the ORPP, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), among others.
CHRR executive director Michael Kaiyatsa argued that redirecting public funding through the ORPP would safeguard its oversight powers amid widespread defiance of the Political Parties Act of 2018.
Last month, Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani said that most parties failed to disclose their donors, with only United Democratic Front (UDF) and People’s Party (PP) providing partial details.
The governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and former ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) were found to have mixed State funds with private money—a direct violation of the Act—despite receiving K432 million and K430 million in public funding, respectively, between 2019 and 2025.
“This weak enforcement environment sends a signal that non-compliance has no consequences. Political parties can spend even trillions without any accountability because the law has no spending caps,” said Kaiyatsa.
However, in an interview yesterday, Tenthani pushed back against the report’s claim of “systematic non-compliance,” calling it a “misrepresentation”.
Said Tenthani: “The report was a desk study done way before elections… It is surprising that even after we presented that both MCP and DPP have given us reports, the CSOs maintain that narrative.”
He acknowledged the issue of mixing funds but attributed it to a “deficiency of capacity” rather than malice, adding that the ORPP, being less than a year old, is still building its own capacity.
Despite his reservations, Tenthani agreed with the proposed reform in principle. “I agree that in other jurisdictions like Kenya and South Africa, the practice is that funds are channelled through the ORPP,” he said.
The CSOs’ report proposes seven priority reforms, including establishing campaign spending limits and strengthening the ORPP with more resources and investigative powers.
Governance expert Willy Kambwandira who is also executive director for Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency backed the CSOs saying: “When Parliament, dominated by the same parties that benefit from public funding, controls disbursement, oversight is compromised by design.”
He stressed that shifting funding authority to the ORPP is “about restoring integrity, independence and enforceability,” warning that without reforms, the country will continue running elections where money moves in the shadows and accountability is optional.
