CIVICUS speaks about Malawi’s 16 September general election with Tadala Chumachiyenda and Tamika Nyirenda-Banda of the Democracy Works Foundation.
The opposition won the last election in 2020, when Lazarus Chakwera and the Tonse Alliance electoral coalition defeated incumbent Peter Mutharika and the Democratic Progressive Party. The election was rerun after a February 2020 Constitutional Court ruling annulled Mutharika’s 2019 victory due to widespread irregularities. This judicial intervention marked a historic moment for Malawi’s democracy, and the next election represents another crucial test for democratic institutions in a country that has endured decades of poverty and economic stagnation.
