Some opposition parties have said that while they plan to field candidates in all 229 constituencies, they will not hold primary elections in all of them because some aspirants will run unopposed.
The parties include UTM Party, People’s Party (PP), Alliance for Democracy (Aford) and People’s Development Party (PDP).
UTM Party spokesperson Felix Njawala in an interview yesterday said the party will hold primaries from June 1 to 6, in 60 percent of the constituencies where two or more people have expressed interest to carry the party’s flag in parliamentary elections.
He said candidates in other constituencies will run unopposed after other aspirants decided to support those they deemed to have more potential.
Said Njawala: “There are some candidates who have done a lot of work and others see that it will be hard to compete with them. In some constituencies it is out of mutual understanding and they decided to support one candidate.”
In a separate interview, Aford spokesperson Annie Amatullah Maluwa said the party was still strategising on the elections, but they do not expect to hold primaries in “more than 50 constituencies”.
She, too, said that in most constituencies candidates are going unopposed.
On his part, PDP spokesperson Rhodes Msonkho said they will resume holding primary elections on May 24, having suspended them earlier this month.
Before the suspension the party had conducted primaries in seven constituencies.
“There are some constituencies where people will go unopposed, but we will still go there to formalise their candidature. Of course people are still coming to show interest so one may think they are going unopposed and then it happens that someone else comes in,” he said.
Asked if the party will manage to identify candidates for all constituencies considering the time left, Msonkho said they plan to expedite the process and hold primaries in the shortest time possible.
PP secretary general Ben Chakhame said the party started holding primary elections on May 17, but that in over 80 constituencies, candidates will run unopposed.
He declined to provide more information on the primaries, saying it is part of the party’s strategy to avoid intruders from interfering with the process.
Earlier this month, Chakhame said PP was also working to avoid fielding candidates in constituencies where its alliance partners have strong candidates.
He said PP is in alliance with PDP, People’s Transformation Party (Petra), Freedom Party (FP) and Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde) and that the relationship was extending to constituency level.
UDF spokesperson Dyson Jangiya said the party is yet to come up with dates for resuming primary elections having suspended the process in April.
He said a committee has been put in place and will come up with dates and areas where the primaries will be conducted.
Meanwhile, political analyst George Chaima has attributed the partial primaries to diminishing popularity of the parties.
In an interview yesterday, he said chances are that in most areas where there is no competition, the parties have just planted candidates as a cover up.
According to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) election calendar, parliamentary candidates are scheduled to collect nomination forms between June 10 and July 5 while those for local government elections are between June 10 and 22. Thereafter, MEC will examine the submissions.
On the other hand, formal submission of papers by parliamentary aspirants will be from July 1 to 5.
Malawi will be going to the polls on September 16 2025 to elect president, members of Parliament and councillors. The number of constituencies has increased from 193, in the 2019 election, to 229 in the 2025 elections.
