Malawi Congress Party (MCP) said yesterday it is largely satisfied with the management of the electoral process ahead of the September 16 2025 General Election, but respects other parties’ right to complain.
MCP’s stance comes on the back of the joint position of five opposition political parties that have written Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) outlining grievances they want addressed within 14 days or they will sue the commission.
Asked on the opposition’s stance against MEC, MCP secretary general Richard Chimwendo Banda said in a written response that his party is an interested party in the elections; hence, would not want to discuss its rivals’ comments, but stressed that it is within the parties’ right to lodge complaints to the commission.
Chimwendo Banda, who is also Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture, cited Section 76 of the Malawi Constitution, which empowers MEC to determine electoral petitions and complaints while allowing aggrieved parties to take up their concerns with the High Court of Malawi.
“MEC is the referee of this game. MCP is also a player like others. So we cannot come here to comment on other parties’ problems. They have the right to complain and we respect that. Every Malawian must respect the rights of others whether you agree with them or not.
“This is what Malawians voted for in 1993. So, whether their complaints are valid or not, MCP has no legal mandate to judge. Morally, we do not have time to interfere with MEC operations, which is a governance institution paid by tax payers’ money to provide free, credible and fair elections,” he said.
On Monday, Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum (Cseif) expressed concern over what it called the opposition parties’ constant raising of issues that MEC already addressed through established mechanisms.
In a statement, Cseif chairperson Benedicto Kondowe said the recent letter from five opposition parties mostly reiterates previously addressed issues.
The forum also said as Malawi approaches the elections, all stakeholders must engage responsibly and in good faith.
The five parties, namely Democratic Progressive Party, UTM, United Democratic Front, People’s Party and Alliance for Democracy wrote MEC on March 6 over what they called the unsatisfactory manner of its handling of the electoral process.
Signed by their secretaries general, the parties cited failure by MEC to provide a sample for the pilot registration and destroy the piloted data from servers in the presence of political parties as well as its refusal to allow independent information and communications technology (ICT) experts to audit the servers.
The letter read in part: “The commission refused to grant this request citing security of the system. The commission, therefore, proceeded with voter registration while disregarding our concerns.
“We also reported that during phase two of the registration, most centres delayed to open, with others opening on the 5th day into the 14 days allocated. It is unfortunate that the commission looked away on this serious matter when considering the supplementary registration exercise.”
Meanwhile, Chimwendo Banda urged MEC to enhance civic and voter education.
MEC itself has expressed fear that low funding—particularly to accredited civil society organisations (CSOs)—could frustrate civic and voter education activities.
Speaking in Mzuzu last month on the sidelines of training for Northern Region constituency civic and voter education assistants ahead of the voter transfer exercise, MEC civic voter education manager King Norman Rudi said that MEC’s efforts to woo voters would be inadequate without CSO support.
A month ago, Cseif’s Kondowe said CSOs need at least K30 billion, which is yet to be mobilized, to effectively support MEC with civic and voter education and asked cooperating partners to help with the resources.
