The Registrar of Political Parties has ordered President Lazarus Chakwera and governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) to stop giving cash handouts to teachers, youths, traditional leaders and vendors at State Residences.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani said the money that the President was giving out to citizens he hosted in separate audiences constituted handouts and a violation of Section 41 of the Political Parties Act.
“I ordered them [Chakwera and MCP] to stop this forthwith and warned that if these incidents are repeated, I will not hesitate to give sanctions and penalties in accordance with the law,” he said.
The decision comes after The Nation, in its July 16 2025 edition, published a story highlighting that attendees of Chakwera’s meetings at State Residences were receiving a minimum of K50 000 each as transport refund or meal allowances despite being ferried in hired lorries and buses and being fed.
The story also moved opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to ask the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties to enforce sanctions against Chakwera and MCP for alleged voter-inducement ahead of the September 16 2025 General Election.
During the meetings with the President, some attendees confided in The Nation that Chakwera was urging them to vote for him.
On the status of the DPP complaint, Tenthani said he responded to the party and that the matter was resolved.
He also said that prior to the DPP complaint, MCP secretary general Richard Chimwendo Banda had written his office seeking clarification on whether the cash handouts were a violation under the law.
“Since I had already advised MCP that they should stop issuing handouts, I told them [DPP] to report back to me if they see MCP continue doing this,” said Tenthani.
Apart from the DPP complaint, he said his office has also received at least 12 other complaints from various candidates relating to announcements of condolence money from candidates during funerals.
Tenthani said his office is currently conducting sensitisation meetings with various political parties, candidates and civil society organisations to inform them that announcing candidate’s condolence money at a funeral service is an offence.
Section 41 (1) of the Political Parties Act prohibits any candidate, political party or person contesting in an election from issuing handouts.
Section 41 (3) of the Act states that a person who contravenes Sub-section 1 of the Act commits an offence and shall, upon conviction, be liable to a fine of K10 million and imprisonment for five years.
In an interview on the registrar’s decision, Catholic University of Malawi Dean of Faculty of Law James Kaphale and private practice lawyer-cum-activist Benedicto Kondowe backed Kizito’s warning issued to the President and MCP.
Kaphale said disciplinary proceedings in most cases start with a warning and that the court route follows once one is not adhering to it.
“MCP, therefore, has to guard themselves against a stiffer punishment by refraining from distributing handouts lest a stiffer punishment will be meted out against them,” he said.
On his part, Kondowe observed that since the Political Parties Act is new, it was in order to start with a warning.
“My only appeal is that the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties will remain fair, so that if another party finds itself in the same, we believe that the same course of action will be taken, so that there is objectivity and neutrality,” he said.
Minister of Information and Digitilisation Moses Kunkuyu, who is the official government spokesperson, is on record as having said Chakwera had done nothing wrong because the money was transport refund.
