The Registrar of Political Parties has given political parties up to October 13 2025 to account for sources of financing for their September 16 General Election or risk fines for their secretaries-general (SGs).
In letters dated September 30 2025 addressed to the parties through their SGs, registrar Kizito Tenthani said the parties have until October 13 2025 to comply.
The parties are Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Malawi Congress Party (MCP), UTM Party, Alliance for Democracy (Aford), People’s Party (PP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) which were represented in the last cohort of Parliament.
Tenthani said to date his office is yet to receive any declarations on private funding and donations from the parties based on an earlier appeal.
“I am, however, aware that your party has been conducting major events that must have required significant amounts of money and other resources. The cases in point are your national convention and your election campaign,” reads in part one of the letters.
Citing Section 27 of the Political Parties Act (PPA), Tenthani asked the parties to submit detailed income and expenditure reports for their last conventions and to declare the sources and amounts of funds received to finance the same.
The registrar further asked the parties to submit detailed reports on the donations received, both in cash or kind that were used for election campaigning.
Section 27 (6) of the PPA provides that an SG of a political party who fails to declare or gives false information “commits an offence and shall, upon conviction, be personally liable to a fine equal to the amount of the funds or the value of the assets not declared”.
DPP and MCP, the two parties that qualified for State funding in the previous Parliament, have until October 31 2025 to submit final accounts, starting from the 2019/20 to 2024/25 financial year, which were due on August 26 2025 and audited reports due on October 1 2025.
In an interview yesterday, Tenthani said their approach is to dialogue with the political parties to understand that the law, matter-of-factly, advances their interests.
MCP SG Richard Chimwendo Banda said in a written response yesterday that he had just received the letter and would respond to the Registrar accordingly.
UTM Party SG Willet Kalonga also confirmed receipt of the letter, saying they will comply with the demands.
“It is a requirement and we will do it,” he said.
UDF SG Genario Lemani said in an interview that they will submit their report by the set deadline.
In a separate interview, Aford SG Linda Limbe said they already have the demanded records and will work to beat the deadline.
PP spokesperson Ackson Kalaile Banda confirmed receipt of the letter and said they hope to comply with the registrar’s demands.
However, both DPP SG Peter Mukhito and spokesperson Shadric Namalomba were yet to respond to our questionnaire by press time yesterday.
By August 26 2025, no political party had disclosed the source of funding for the General Election campaign, defying the PPA and raising transparency concerns.
Malawi Law Society on July 20 and September 30 2021 wrote the Registrar of Political Parties seeking information within 15 days on political party financiers ahead of the 2019 Tripartite Elections and the court-sanctioned June 2020 fresh presidential election.
However, the registrar did not provide the information.
The inaction prompted MLS to seek a judicial review, which the High Court of Malawi granted in May this year.
Section 27 (2) of the Political Parties Act compels political parties to declare to the registrar any donation with a monetary value of at least K1 000 000 from an individual donor.
