MEC bosses blow K1.2 billion a year on Lilongwe rentals — 20 TIMES pricier than Blantyre — as they defy president’s relocation order

Malawi’s Electoral Commission (MEC) has been accused of squandering a staggering K1.2 billion annually on rental costs in Lilongwe — a jaw-dropping twenty times more than the mere K60 million it would cost to operate from Blantyre, as explosive new details emerge of leadership resistance to a presidential relocation directive.

Sources say the vast majority of MEC staff are ready and willing to relocate to Blantyre in line with the order issued earlier this year, but that a small clique at the very top of the Commission is digging in its heels and blocking the move.

Insiders have named MEC Chairperson Anabel Mtalimanja alongside MCP-aligned commissioners Richard Chapweteka, Rev Phillip Kambulire and Limbikani Kamlongera — all part-time, Lilongwe-based commissioners — as the key figures standing in the way of the relocation, while the remainder of the Commission is understood to see clear merit in the move.

Making matters worse, details show that rental costs at the Commission’s Lilongwe headquarters have shot up dramatically since 1 April this year, rising from K34 million to K45 million per month.

The situation is even starker at the Commission’s Njewa warehouse, where rental costs have been hiked from K38 million to a staggering K62 million per month — increases that have only intensified questions over why the Commission continues clinging to its costly Lilongwe base.

Analysts and insiders alike say the real reason behind the leadership’s refusal to relocate has little to do with logistics, and everything to do with money.

“The leadership is arrogant and extravagant. Why do they want to spend a lot of money on rentals when there is a cheaper way of doing the same thing? I ask the government to ensure that the Commission has relocated,” one analyst told this publication.

Adding further embarrassment to the saga, the Commission also stumbled badly after attempting to get the Ministry of Lands and Housing Development to cover its warehouse rental costs — despite having already budgeted for those very expenses under its own Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) allocation.

The blunder is understood to be a key reason why the Commission was ultimately forced to withdraw its court case over the warehouse dispute, further exposing what critics say is a pattern of financial mismanagement and self-serving decision-making at the top of one of Malawi’s most important democratic institutions.

With pressure now mounting on government to enforce its own relocation order, all eyes will be on whether MEC’s leadership can continue resisting the directive — or whether growing public scrutiny over the billions being spent on rentals will finally force their hand.