Economic manifesto for 2025 election

The year 2023 is done and dusted. Almost 18 months is left to the next General Election when Malawians will again choose a President.  There is a thin line between politics and the economy.

Endorsements are already flying with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) settling for former president Peter Mutharika. Malawi Congress Party (MCP) appears to have unanimously agreed to give President Chakwera another five-year mandate. As we saunter into 2024, it is the thought of 2025 which promises to present Malawians a highly-contested election.

The introduction of the 50 percent plus 1 formula means that it is hard to envisage a party that can amass the majority vote without forming alliances.

What is at stake, though, is something nobler than the personalities jostling to get into power and occupy the presidency. Malawians should be more concerned about the substance of the election, which is primarily to do with the promises surrounding economic development for our nation. It has become the norm that parties and their presidential candidates make easy promises and pronounce all manner of commitments that are soon broken, turned into lies, and concocted into un-deliverables.

As the 2025 General Election fast approaches, accountability on political promises matters. Malawians deserve better than empty promises. Citizens have the right to demand development so often packed in party manifestos.

For decades now, Malawi has failed to attain sustainable development. The economy continues to worsen as poverty has deepened. The state of infrastructure is pathetic while roads have degenerated into pothole infested zones. As a matter of fact, the state of Malawi economy does not reflect well for a country that claims political independence, self-determination and sovereignty in 1964.

Economic independence appears a far-fetched dream, especially where exports are persistently too low compared with imports. Slow pace of diversification from agriculture into other economic sectors also compounds the problem while value addition in agricultural productivity has been less than convincing.

The election in 2025 should not be the time to massage personal egos of presidential candidates. It is the time to transform the country into a largely producing and exporting nation. The election should be a platform for competing ideas on how to implement Malawi 2063 national vision for nurturing a country that is inclusively wealthy and progressing towards becoming an upper middle income economy.

Malawi is seating on a fiscal crisis where rising public expenditure cannot be adequately supported by domestic revenue sources. Malawians are saddled with heavy and multiple taxes as government takes desperate measures to generate revenue by milking a cow that is already thin. On a related note, the 2025 election is an opportunity for presidential candidates to showcase workable ideas on how to tame the ever-rising public debt which has hit K12.4 trillion.

The economy is bleeding as the cost of living continues to rise with prices of goods and services skyrocketing on a daily basis. Inflation has hit 33 percent as we end the year 2023, while food inflation is over 46 percent.  The 44 percent devaluation has simply added insult to injury on Malawi’s economic wound. Life has become tough and hard for ordinary Malawians.

Even more embarrassing is that the little money that remains in the fiscus is looted through all manner of corruption, bribery, bad procurement deals, and construction of shoddy infrastructure projects.

The coming election must deal with these malfeasances once and for all. It is a life-time democratic opportunity to have budgets that work for the people and do away with budgets that simply allocate billions of budget money into wastage, unnecessary presidential travel, and mere consumption, with little left for economic productivity. The search for the right presidential candidate begins now.