For more information on the recent elections see:   

                    2009 Presidential & National Assembly Elections 

Description of Electoral System:

 The president of Malawi, is both Head of State and Government, and is directly elected through universal suffrage by a plurality. Elections are held concurrently with those of the National Assembly and are held every five years. The President is restricted to two five year terms. The First Vice-President is elected on the same ticket as the President and the President may nominate a Second Vice-President from another party.

Legislative Power is vested in a parliament consisting of the President and the National Assembly. The National Assembly has 193 Seats, elected from single member constituencies using the First Past The Post (FPTP) system. The Senate was abolished in 2001.

Politics of Malawi

 

Event

 

Workshop: Malawi Post Election Review

EISA, in partnership with the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI), will host a 2009 post election review workshop guided by the theme Performance of Political Parties in the 2009 elections: Examining the weakening of party systems in Malawi. The workshop will be held on 13 - 14 August 2009 at Malawi Sun Hotel, Blantyre, Malawi.

Workshop: SADC - ESN Capacity Building Workshop

EISA and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) co-hosted a capacity building workshop for members of the SADC Electoral Support Network (SADC-ESN) on 25 - 27 November 2008 in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Workshop: Technical training for the Malawi Electoral Commission

EISA held an orientation workshop for the commissioners and training of  trainers for senior staff of the Malawi electoral commission (MEC) from 02 -06 June in Zomba, Malawi. Read More>>

Workshop:  Malawi Electoral Commission staff undergone training

The Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), with support from UNDP Malawi, trained the third group of  secretariat staff at Hotel Masongola in Zomba, Malawi from 11th  to 15th February 2008.

 

After independence in 1964 Malawi became a one-party state with Dr Hasting Banda proclaimed President-for-Life. Domestic protest and international pressure led to a referendum on the one-party-state in June 1993 and in 1994 multiparty elections followed.

The 1994 elections were characterised by a regional pattern of voting which has continued since. The ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) was ousted from power by the United Democratic Front (UDF) under Baliki Maluzi, who became President. The UDF won the 1999 election with a narrow margin and the results were contested by the opposition who alleged fraud. Ahead of the 2004 elections President Maluzi unsuccessfully attempted to have the constitution amended to allow him to stand for a third term, which led to a split in the UDF.

President Bingu Wa Mutharika, who won the 2004 election as the candidate of the UDF, but he resigned from the party on 5 February 2005 and March 2005 he formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Previous elections

DID YOU KNOW? Only 14.4% of members of the National Assembly elected in 2004 were women

The 2009 Presidential election, was won by DDP's  candidate Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika with 66.17% of the votes, followed by John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) with 30.49%. The balance went to other parties (For further information see:Malawi 2009 Presidential results)

In the National Assembly the DDP won 27.43% of the seats,the Independents 15.63%, the MCP 11.11%, the UDF claimed 5.88%.For further information see: 2009 National Assembly election results

Next elections

Presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for 2014.