Four out of the six political parties represented in Parliament are yet to set dates for primary electionsahead of the September 16 2025 General Election, but say they will beat the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) deadline.
Through primary elections, parties identify candidates to represent them in parliamentary and local government elections and MEC plans to start receiving the nominations from April.
In separate interviews yesterday, the parties also committed to set lower fees for women, youth and persons with disabilities to encourage them to contest.
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Alliance for Democracy (Aford), People’s Party (PP) and UTM Party are yet to set dates for their respective primary elections, but have said they are working within the MEC calendar.
DPP publicity secretary Shadric Namalomba in an interview said the central executive committee of the party will meet to set dates and nomination fees for both local government and parliamentary primary elections.
“But we will hold elections in all constituencies, even where we have incumbents because we want to give people the opportunity to choose their candidates,” he said.
On his part, UTM Party publicity secretary Felix Njawala said they have been meeting this week and expect to announce dates by next week.
Aford publicity secretary Annie Maluwa said the party will set a date by the end of February after collecting data to check which areas they have aspiring candidates.
“In some areas so far we have only one contestant so there will be no need to conduct primary elections,” she said.
In a separate interview, PP vice-president for the centre Peter Kamange said the party is still receiving expressions of interest from candidates seeking to contest on its ticket.
On the other hand, Malawi Congress Party (MCP), a key member of the disintegrated governing Tonse Alliance, said it will start holding primary elections this month starting with areas where it does not have incumbent legislators.
In an interview yesterday, MCP secretary general Richard Chimwendo Banda said: “This is [the arrangement] because Parliament is starting its sitting on Friday but all 229 constituencies and 509 wards will have primary elections.”
UDF publicity secretary Dyson Jangia said the party will conduct its primary elections from March to April.
During past elections, unresolved disputes, especially during primaries for parliamentary candidates have seen some disgruntled candidates contesting as independents on polling day.
The trend has resulted in the growth of independent legislators from 33 in 2009 to 52 in 2014 and 55 in 2019.
