MPs ‘abandon’constituents

Following the re-demarcation of constituencies, some members of Parliament (MPs) are being accused of shunning areas which fall outside their new boundaries.

They are said to be concentrating on areas where they intend to contest in the 2025 general elections.

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) completed the re-demarcation of the 193 constituencies and created 35 new ones.

Research and interviews Weekend Nation conducted with some constituents, political parties and electoral stakeholders have confirmed most sitting MPs of re-demarcated constituencies have shifted their focus.

MPs are primarily required to represent the views, interests and needs of their constituents in Parliament, and act on behalf by introducing motions and bills, asking questions, contributing to debates, presenting petitions and raising matters of urgent importance. MPs also have a bigger say in deciding how the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), now at K100 million, is used. 

Our findings show that most MPs that have started ‘abandoning’ their constituents are those in the strongholds of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

Key electoral stakeholders like National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust, National Elections Systems Trust (Nest) and the Centre for Democracy and Elections (Cede) have confirmed the MPs’ acts.

Cede technical specialist Aloisious Nthenda observed that ‘the abandoned’ constituencies have lost representation in Parliament and will also fail to fully benefit from projects that require MPs’ authorisation such as use of the CDF.

“Some of the newly-formed constituencies are also a source of tension and conflict where two incumbent MPs from the same political party want to contest in the same constituency,” he said.

Nthenda noted that as it stood, the situation was tricky to deal with because, politically, for a candidate to win an election, one has to mobilise and canvass support in the constituency he or she will contest.

“We, therefore, appeal to political parties and incumbent MPs to ensure peaceful co-existence and intra party democracy,” he said.

On his part, Nice Trust acting executive director Gray Kalindekafe said the MPs that are repositioning and migrating to new constituencies need to wait for the dissolution of Parliament.

“This behaviour could be a fertile ground to resuscitate the debate on the “Recall Provision”, which is a power reserved to the voters that allow the voters, by petition, to demand the removal of an elected official,” he said.

Recall Provision was originally under Section 63.1 (g) and Section 64 of the country’s Constitution before it was repealed by Act No .6 of 1995.

Said Kalindekafe: “It is evident that the framers of the Constitution had very good intentions when incorporating such provisions. Voters could have powers to recall such MPs who are abandoning them. This behaviour is also tantamount to circumvention of the Constitution and sheer display of decadence of moral integrity.”

Kalindekafe also observed that one consequence of the MPs’ conduct was that the ‘abandoned’ areas would be under-developed and will not effectively benefit from CDF, which is largely controlled by MPs.

But, in an interview, DPP director of elections Henry Matemba said his party was not aware of the development, “suffice to say, every member knows his/her exact village of origin and it’s a known fact that one works better where he/she has settled for many years and has some roots”.

He added: “Our members are aware of the new constituencies and the party is following all procedures of putting one into a position so that there are no misunderstandings because of the demarcation of constituency boundaries.”

While MCP publicity secretary Ezekiel Ching’oma asked for more time before commenting, his UTM Party counterpart Felix Njawala said it was unfortunate that some MPs had started sidelining certain sections of their constituencies.

He said they, as a party, had not received any query from members.

Said Njawala: “Our message is simple; don’t abandon people that voted for you. It’s a mistake to focus on 2025 while abandoning their responsibility.”

United Democratic Front (UDF) spokesperson Yusuf Mwawa said Parliament was a contractual agreement guided by law to represent the constituents and perform duties of representation, oversight and legislative in the area the MP was elected for a period of five years.

“UDF does not expect its current members to abdicate these roles in constituencies which they were elected,” he said.

MEC created two new constituencies in Chitipa, Nkhata Bay, Nsanje and Mulanje while 22 other district, town and municipal councils have seen the birth of one new constituency each. Constituencies under Likoma, Kasungu, Mchinji, Mwanza and Mangochi district councils have remained intact.

Constitutionally, it is a requirement that constituency boundaries are reviewed every five years but this was the first comprehensive review undertaken by MEC since 1998.

Currently, MCP has the most MPs, at around 80, after more than 20 independent MPs joined the country’s oldest political party, seconded by DPP (about 56) while the UDF, UTM, People’s Party, UDF and Alliance for Democracy have 10, five, four and one, respectively.