General Elections, 16 September 2025

Malawi’s general elections, held on 16 September 2025, determined the presidency, 229 seats in the National Assembly and 509 local councilors. There were 17 presidential candidates with two leading contenders—Incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and his immediate predecessor former President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (Jegwa and Chibelushi 2025). All elections are directed, organized and supervised by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC 2025; MEC n.d.) which is composed of at least six commissioners appointed by the President, based on  nominations from political parties; a High Court judge nominated by the Judicial Service Commission; and a chairperson (MEC 2025).

The MEC appeared to enjoy relatively high levels of trust among the general public, being seen as largely impartial and competent.  Candidate nominations were approved late and rejected candidates had no time to seek legal redress before ballot papers were printed (EU EOM 2025).

In general, the campaigns were peaceful, with fundamental rights of political participation being respected (EU EOM 2025). Campaign activity was modest due to economic constraints. Nonetheless, the absence of campaign finance regulations made for an unlevel playing field favouring wealthier candidates and the line between public and campaign expenditures was blurred (EU EOM 2025). Specifically, incumbent candidates used public resources in their campaigning activities in 19.5 per cent of observed events (EU EOM 2025). Moreover, some stakeholders were worried that delays in the government’s funding for the 2025 elections might limit the MEC’s capacity (AU and COMESA 2025). Traditional leaders endorsed specific candidates in Kasungu, Mulanje, Mzimba and Machinga in breach of their legal obligations to remain impartial (EU EOM 2025).

On election day, conduct of the voting was assessed positively overall in 99 per cent of 359 polling stations visited by EU observers (EU EOM 2025). However, 15 out of 26 stations under observation by the African Union-COMESA opened slightly (5–50 minutes) late. Glitches in the biometric register and biometric identification (BVVID – see below) caused delays at two polling stations. Late openings and absence of priority lines disproportionately impacted women and elderly voters (AU and COMESA 2025). Traces of ink were not checked in 23 per cent of cases and; incorrect assisted voting was observed in 20 per cent of polling stations (EU EOM 2025). 

Tabulation of the results was not seen as organized and transparent;  some of the kits delivered to the National Tally Centre were missing appropriate security seals, the worst case being Nkhata Bay (42 of whose 45 kit boxes  were missing seals); Luchenza Municipality and Kasungu Municipality were also affected (Nation Online 2025). Moreover, the counting procedure from one polling station to another was inconsistent and there were too few security guards on site (ECF-SADC 2025). The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) claimed that it had noted failed vote-counting procedures in 13 of Malawi’s 28 districts (Banda 2025). Police arrested eight people working as data entry clerks for alleged electoral fraud and count manipulation (Maseko 2025). One returning officer attempted suicide after accepting bribes in exchange for manipulating the election results (Banda 2025; Africa Press.net 2025).

Regarding the information environment, the incumbent Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential candidate President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera was observed to receive disproportionate exposure from the state media and MCP content was also amplified by state social media platforms and accounts (EU EOM 2025). Disinformation was ‘limited’ with low investment in social media, official pages generally avoiding false narratives and most campaign messaging being about non-divisive issues (EU EOM 2025). 

Campaign events themselves appear to have been free of hate speech, incitement to violence or excessive use of force by security forces (EU EOM 2025). This was in contrast to the previous electoral cycle and with violence against peaceful demonstrators in June 2025, in which the police did not intervene (AU and COMESA 2025; ECF-SADC 2025).  However, there were two isolated incidents of physical intimidation and harassment of media workers (EU EOM 2025) and records from the Malawi Police Service show that five incidents of political violence were reported, with at least one verified incident of a female candidate being directly targeted during the campaign period when her motorcade was blocked by vehicles belonging to a rival candidate who then attacked her bodyguard six weeks into the campaign period. Other female candidates faced threats, public verbal attacks and demeaning language, and political “no-go zones”. Some voters also reported having witnessed male candidates use derogatory language against female opponents (Muwotcha 2025).  Online, some individual attacks against female candidates marked exceptions to the mainly peaceful digital campaign (EU EOM 2025).

Women made up 57.2 per cent of the registered electorate (J. Mwale 2025) yet only one of 17 presidential candidates was female. For the National Assembly, 1,132 candidates were nominated, of which 22.4 per cent were women. At the local government level, 2,384 candidates contested, with 17.8 per cent (AU and COMESA 2025). 48 women were elected MPs (21.14 per cent) compared with 40 in the smaller outgoing parliament (20.7 per cent) (IPU n.d.).

Turnout was 76.4 per cent. Having secured 56.8 per cent of valid votes, the DPP candidate Peter Mutharika was declared the presidential winner (T. A. Mwale 2025).

Innovations

The Electronic Management of Data (EMD) system for voter registration and the Biometric Voter Verification Identification Devices (BVVIDs) for polling was introduced and tested for the first time following reforms after the 2019 elections annulment. To make sure that they are used effectively, MEC organized training programmes and refresher sessions on managing equipment malfunctions (AU and COMESA 2025). Problems with the BVVID hindered voting operations in 11 per cent of polling stations (EU EOM 2025).

After the disputed 2019 election, Malawi introduced a new rule requiring presidential candidates to secure more than 50 per cent of the total votes to win in the first round. In case none of the candidates meet that threshold, run-off elections are organized. Recent reforms to electoral law have bolstered the independence and effectiveness of the MEC (EU EOM 2025).

Additionally, less than two weeks before the election, a law was adopted to facilitate voting for election, security, and party personnel by allowing them to vote where they are deployed rather than having to return to their home constituencies. The law was expected to enfranchise 80,000 of these voters, but was criticized for excluding journalists and independent observers (Simakoloyi, 2025).