Malawi - September 2025

On 3 September, President Lazarus Chakwera signed into law the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections Amendment Act, a piece of legislation intended to facilitate election day workers to cast their ballots. It does so by empowering the electoral commission to authorise workers (polling staff, political party agents, candidate representatives and members of the security forces) to vote where they are deployed, rather than having to return to the constituency in which they are registered. According to the government, the law is expected to enfranchise 80,000 of these voters. However, the law’s explicit exclusion of journalists and independent observers has been criticised by opposition parties and civil society, who have emphasised the important role these groups play in ensuring the integrity of elections. The law was enacted less than two weeks before the country’s general elections on 16 September.  

Sources: Parliament of Malawi, ISS Africa, Malawi 24