Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has disclosed that it lacks K97.9 billion in its 2025 budget to fund a potential presidential run-off if no candidate secures 50 percent plus 1 votes.
MEC chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja said this yesterday when she presented a report during a National Election Consultative Forum (Necof) meeting in Lilongwe.
In the May 2019 Tripartite Elections, MEC budgeted for K55 billion while in the June 2020 court-sanctioned fresh presidential election, the commission was allocated K29 billion.
The MEC chairperson, however, stated that relevant offices have promised to provide the funds if needed.
Said Mtalimanja: “As you might be aware, under Section 80 (2) of the Constitution, the President is elected by a majority of more than 50 percent of the valid votes cast through direct, universal and equal suffrage…
“The amount for holding a second election is not in the budget allocated to the Commission this year, but the relevant offices involved are aware, and there is an assurance that the money will be provided when needed.”
According to the law, where the 50+1 majority is not obtained by any candidate in the first poll, a second poll must be held within 60 days after the declaration of the result in which the candidates who obtained the highest votes cast in the first poll shall be the only candidates.
Reacting to the funding gap, Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) executive director Boniface Chibwana expressed surprise that Parliament overlooked the re-run budget, but acknowledged government efforts to fund elections so far.
He said: “We hope there will be a way to fund the re-run in an event that scenario presents itself to us. As a nation, we cannot delegate the responsibility of managing elections to development partners.”
In a separate interview, Malawi Electoral Support Network (Mesn) national coordinator Andrew Kachaso echoed Chibwana’s sentiments, stressing that preparedness is key.
“The law only provides for 60 days to conduct a rerun so there are implications; hence, the need to have all the resources before embarking on this exercise. We had five years to prepare and we should not start giving excuses of economic factors,” he said
During the Necof, Mtalimanja also informed stakeholders that a new national results tally centre will be established in Lilongwe due to its centrality.
Meanwhile, MEC has set lower nomination fees for women, youth and persons with disabilities. Presidential aspirants will pay K10 million, while male parliamentary candidates face K2 million versus K1.25 million for women, youth and disabled contenders.
Similarly, male local government candidates will pay K200 000, while women and others in the category will pay K100000.
The official campaign period for the 16 September 2025 polls will begin on July 14 2025 and end at 6AM on September 24 2025.
She said a nationwide voter verification exercise will run from May 13 to 31 2025 in three phases.
The chaiperson also indicated that only 7.2 million voters are currently registered against a projected 10.9 million eligible voters.
