Ma lawi Congress Pa r t y (MCP) yesterday started conducting primary elections for both parliamentary and local government polls in some districts, leading the way ahead of presentation of nominations to Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in April.
MCP embarked on the exercise in Mchinji and Dowa, targeting only three constituencies; namely, Mchinji West, Dowa Ngala and Dowa West where the party has no incumbent legislators.
In an interview, MCP deputy secretary general Gerald Kazembe said the primary elections will be held in phases, initially targeting constituencies and council wards where the party has no seating members of Parliament (MPs) and councillors.
He said MCP was expecting about 1 500 candidates to contest for parliamentary seats in all the 229 constituencies nationwide.
Said Kazembe: “The nomination fee is K400 000, but for us to encourage the participation of women and youths, we have made a deliberate arrangement that they should pay half that amount.”
In a separate interview, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary general Peter Mukhito said the official opposition political party in Parliament will hold its primary elections next month.
Like MCP, he said DPP would also start with constituencies and wards where the party has no seating MPs and councilors. He hoped DPP will complete the exercise in all the 229 constituencies before the end of March.
On the other hand, United Democratic Front (UDF) publicity secretary Dyson Jangia said his party will also start conducting primary elections next month.
Unlike the other three parties which have set nomination fees for hopefuls, People’s Party (PP) secretary general Ben Chakhame said there will be no nomination fee attached to candidates interested to contest in both parliamentary and local government elections under PP ticket.
The MEC electoral calendar shows nomination papers from both parliamentary and local government election candidates would be received in April and May 2025.
During past elections, unre sol v ed di s p u te s , especially during primaries for parliamentary candidates, have seen some disgruntled candidates contesting as independents on polling day.
The trend saw the growth of independent legislators from 33 in 2009 to 52 in 2014 and 55 in 2019.
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While Minister of Labour Vitumbiko Mumba has led the crusade of spotting industrial specks in private sector’s eyes, he has either ignored or missed the logs in government’s eyes that his own officials have exposed in a letter protesting working conditions.
In their demand letter to Ministry of Labour Principal Secretary (PS) dated February 18 2025, concerned labour officers said their efforts to have their grievances regarding working conditions addressed internally have yielded nothing since first raising them in 2021.
standards by going after employers suspected of violating labour laws in the private sector while labour officers under the ministry are complaining of exploitation.
“We are working on a functional review. The functional review that was done needed to be revised. Some positions need to be upgraded, so we are coming up with positions that will motivate the officers,” said Mussa.
Meanwhile, Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (Ecam) executive director George Khaki declined to comment on whether government was playing double standards in the enforcement of labour laws.
But he said the Ministry of Labour was an employer and the same laws need to apply across the board.
Said Khaki: “Employees in the Ministry of Labour are at liberty to air out concerns. If they have come out on this, it means there is something that the ministry and government needs
