Malawi heading in the wrong direction—Afrobarometer

Majority of Malawians have expressed discontent over the “wrong” direction leaders are driving the country to, both economically and politically, a new public perception survey released yesterday has revealed.

The survey, conducted by the US-based Afrobarometer, indicates that more than three quarters of Malawians have negative assessment of the country’s direction and look at things as going amiss.

Afrobarometer conducted its Round Six survey between March 22 and April 5 2014, which also revealed that Malawians’ trust in public institutions is sharply declining as perceptions of corruption are increasing.

Announcing the results in Blantyre, Joseph Chunga, one of the lead research team members said during the survey 78 percent of Malawians felt the country was going the wrong way.

The statistics sharply increased during the reign of former President Joyce Banda from 50 percent in May 2012, when Afrobarometer conducted its last survey.

The survey had 2400 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus two percent at a 95 percent confidence level and used, among others, face to face interviews conducted in the language of the respondents’ choice.