Survey shows very costly contesting elections in Malawi: K14.8m spent by each candidate in 2019
It is very costly for one to become a Member of Parliament (MP) as findings of the The Cost of Politics in Malawi Survey has established, stating that 1 333 parliamentary aspirants in May 21 2019 polls each spent on average K14.8 million to canvass the votes.
Speaking during the dissemination of the survey findings in Lilongwe on Wednesday, second deputy speaker of Malawi Parliament Aisha Adams said the study reflected on the situation on the ground and that candidates spend more than the indicated amounts.
“It is very costly and expensive in Malawian politics for one to become a member of Parliament. One needs to spend a lot and sometimes unnecessarily,” said Adams.
She said apart from money, there are “other moral issues.”
“For one to become a member of parliament people look for a good character not only money.
“Malawi introduced the act to be followed but in the last tripartite elections the act was there which people was supposed to follow but nobody was there to monitor and people did not follow the act. This time around we will need the civil societies to monitor so that the act is being followed”, she said.
Micheal Wahman the assistant professor in the department of political science from Michigan State University said that in this research study they conducted concerning the malawian candidates they have questioned different candidates about the tripartite elections and across Malawi they have selected 375 candidates.
“In this research we have found that standing elections in Malawi is expensive where the average spends 14 million kwacha in the campaign period and this money that they are spending is not that what they get after winning the elections”, he said
Finally he also said that Malawi has to start discussing the problems about the money in politics and start thinking about the solutions to these problems.
The average parliamentary candidates in the 2019 elections spent a total of MK14.8 million seeking election and this number include all candidates even those with little or no chance of being elected.
The candidates that won more than 20% of the vote, the average is MK27 million Malawi and this amount equals to 140% of an Mps annual salary
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
palibe angavomele zoona
That’s good survey. They must spend and it’s very little coz these mps are making lots of money, not only salary but they are also receiving house travel even being in parliament they do receive allowance for it.
Good survey and report. Now ‘it shows that Malawians are wealthy/rich. We should be conducting these elections more often. Maybe bi-annually.
No it’s a recipe for corruption. It is promoting corruption and mediocrity. Conmen masquerading as politicians see it as an opportunity to get rich quick. EASY MONEY!!! When one wins s/he will make sure not only to make up for what s/he lost during campaign period but also steal even more for the next election campaign. It’s a vicious cycle of thievery, corruption, duping of a common villager.
The looser of course is a taxpayer not thieving politicians.
This Survey is a lie, not all MPs or candidates can have such money or spend such money on Campaign
Most these Candidates can either use Bicycles or Motor Cycles or Cars.. But mostly its not that much
Whoever did this must have smoked Ganja wambiri
An average doesn’t mean that everyone spent so much. And in monetary issues its better to use median otherwise average is affected by extreme values