MALAWI: Pre-Election Atmosphere & more – 16th Sep 2025

Muli bwanji from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 16th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

Malawians voted on Tuesday the 16th, but the pre-election atmosphere didn’t look like it.

Previous governments have always kept issues like long fuel queues, power outages, and unemployment rates to a minimum, especially during elections, to try and make people forget the hard times and re-elect them into power. But this year, the government couldn’t care less, which has affected the people’s excitement towards the elections.

The BBC wrote a story noting the same issue, and also mentioned there were fewer party clothes and billboards placed across the country, which added vibrancy to the elections compared to previous election years.

But maybe people are just stressed about the cost of living.

A new study by the Centre for Social Concern (or CfSC) revealed that the cost of living went up from nearly 520 thousand Kwacha in August twenty twenty-four, which is 300 dollars, to 910 thousand Kwacha, about 525 dollars, last month. This represents a seventy-five percent increase in just twelve months.

The CfSC called this a national development emergency, saying that families who are stressed about survival cannot invest in education, skills, or other productive activities.

Despite the spiralling inflation, President Chakwera insists he has a plan to make things better and that people must vote for him in the elections.

Many people seem to have lost hope in the President, though. His convoy was booed while passing through Blantyre in the Southern Region over the weekend, and people feel he dragged his feet during his presidency.

For instance, people were concerned that he took so long to dissolve his cabinet, and that government officials conducted election campaigns using public resources.

President Chakwera only dissolved the cabinet on the night of Monday the 15th - just hours before Malawians went to the polls.

Some political commentators said that the Cabinet should have been dissolved in July, when the campaign period was launched.

Meanwhile, there were fears that the voter turnout may be low because an assessment by the Civil Society Elections Integrity Forum said that fifteen percent of registered voters - about one million people - did not get any official messages about the election process before the general elections. The survey also said that nearly five percent of voters are relying on friends and other informal, peer-to-peer channels to get information about the vote.

However, on Sunday the 14th, the Malawi Electoral Commission denied the news, and said they had ensured that they reached every registered voter before the poll day.

Unfortunately, the assessment may have been correct because the Malawi Electoral Commission’s voter count was quite concerning.

On Tuesday the 16th, the Commission gave an update around 2:30 PM, saying that nearly 3.5 million people had voted, although the poll stations opened at 6 AM nationwide. That is less than fifty percent of the 7.2 million people who were registered and expected to vote.

However, the voting stations close a few hours later, on the night of Tuesday the 16th, so there is still hope that the numbers will have improved by then.

There have been other concerning developments regarding the elections. For instance, some users of the Airtel telecommunications company received messages telling them to vote for President Chakwera, just hours before the elections. Airtel quickly released a statement emphasizing that the message did not come from them, although it was made to look like it did. They also stressed their position as a non-partisan company.

It might be weird that neither the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority nor the ruling Malawi Congress Party commented on the news.

Some believe the messages were trying to manipulate voters into keeping President Chakwera in power.

The Malawi Police Service arrested four individuals who were planning to burn down markets in Lilongwe in the Central Region and Blantyre on Tuesday the 16th to disrupt the elections. The police said the move would have made it hard for election materials to be transferred safely within the cities and from other districts too.

According to the Police Service statement, shared on social media on Friday the 12th, the four had a WhatsApp group where they were plotting everything, sharing evidence of money transfers, and where they said they had gotten others on their plan.

The police are looking for other suspects and have since charged the ones in custody with conspiracy to commit a felony.

Despite the elections and the dissolved cabinet, the Ministries are still pursuing new projects. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture wants to purchase tobacco from the twenty twenty-four/twenty twenty-five farming season from farmers.

According to a statement released on Saturday the 13th, the Ministry has noted that tobacco sales have decreased at their tobacco auction floors, mainly because traditional buyers have stopped buying tobacco after meeting their trade targets. However, tobacco farmers still have a lot of stock to sell, which is why the government has decided to buy from them.

They said this will support tobacco farmers who rely on their sales, and also safeguard the tobacco industry.

In an update to a story from a previous show… We mentioned that the Ministry of Education had released the twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six Academic Calendar. On Thursday the 11th, a statement started going around on social media late in the afternoon telling students, parents, and guardians that the Ministry had changed the Calendar, and that schools would open on Monday the 15th, instead of Monday the 22nd.

The statement quickly caused commotion, pressuring guardians to prepare school fees and uniforms earlier than they had expected.

However, a few hours later, at night, the Ministry said the trending statement was fake. They urged the public to ignore it, saying that the calendar had not changed at all.

There were also rumors that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs would introduce new measures after the elections due to a document circulating on social media. However, the Ministry has since denied the allegations.

The document said the Ministry would devalue the Kwacha by 150 percent to align the exchange rate and fix the forex shortage. It also said they would raise fuel prices by 100 percent, and retrench some public officials.

However, the government distanced itself from the document, and urged the public to disregard it. They said it was written by angry people who want to ruin the government’s image.

In other news, graduates of the Bachelor of Laws program offered at the Catholic University (or CU) can now practice law without having to take extra exams. This applies to all Law graduates – past, present, and future.

Before this, the graduates would have to enrol and sit for the Malawi Law Examinations to be able to practice law and be admitted to the Bar. However, the Malawi Council of Legal Education recently assessed the CU’s Law program, and released a statement saying its graduates did not have to take any more exams after graduating.

However, the graduates may still need to meet other conditions as stated by the law, which is normal for every lawyer.

And for our last story, Malawian citizens can now pass through Burkina Faso without a visa.

On Friday the 12th, Burkina Faso announced that it had removed visa fees for all African travelers to help facilitate the movement of people and goods into their country.

However, all travelers will still need to apply for an online visa if they want to go on holiday to Burkina Faso or for an extended period of time, like for school or work.

Burkina Faso has joined other African countries like Ghana, Rwanda, and Kenya, which have also changed their visa requirements to accommodate African travelers.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Don’t forget that we do many other updates. We’ve got country and non-country updates, including the Arctic, Ocean, and Multilateral shows.

Check the full list with the link in the show notes.

Pitani bwino!