In theory, Malawi has a robust legal framework to safeguard its elections. The Political Parties Act of 2018 criminalizes vote-buying, promising fines, imprisonment, and accountability for politicians who attempt to sway voters with handouts. On paper, it is a shield meant to protect democracy, transparency, and fairness. In practice, it is a paper shield, thin and brittle, barely able to defend against a culture of handouts that has been normalized over decades.
Kizito Tenthani
The recent 172 complaints filed after the September 16, 2025 General Election illustrate this perfectly. Every single complaint was dismissed — not because violations did not occur, but because evidence was weak, and the regulatory office, barely a year old, lacked the capacity to pursue cases effectively. The law requires citizens to report infractions, gather proof, and appear in court to establish intent — a standard almost impossible to meet in the heat and chaos of campaign season.
Herein lies the problem: the law is citizen-dependent. It assumes that ordinary voters will step forward, document violations, risk intimidation, and follow through in court. Yet as Political Registrar Kizito Tenthani candidly admitted, citizens often pull back when faced with the prospect of testifying. They are worried about safety, social pressure, or political retribution. The law, while clear in its prescriptions, fails to protect or empower those who must make the law actionable.
Even if citizens are willing, proving vote-buying is structurally difficult. The law does not merely criminalize handing out a bag of maize or cash; it requires demonstrating intent — that the handout was given to influence a vote. Intention is invisible. Proving it demands evidence often beyond the reach of a voter who witnesses an exchange at a rally or in a village market. Courts, operating on the standard of “beyond reasonable doubt,” are almost guaranteed to dismiss cases where such evidence is flimsy. As a result, the law punishes what can be proven but leaves the bulk of vote-buying unchecked.
Adding to the challenge is institutional weakness. The Political Parties Office, responsible for oversight, is young and under-resourced. Its officers cannot monitor every campaign in every constituency. Even roving teams and localized civic education cannot cover all the ground, particularly in rural areas where handouts are easiest to distribute and hardest to detect. Without capacity to proactively investigate or enforce, the law relies excessively on citizen reporting — a reliance that creates a structural blind spot for enforcement.
We must also acknowledge the cultural context. In Malawi, handouts are not merely political infractions; they are a deeply embedded social practice. Voters often expect gifts, politicians see them as campaign essentials, and communities tacitly accept the exchange. The law alone cannot eradicate decades of normalized behavior. It can punish a few actors caught in the act, but it cannot dismantle the system that makes vote-buying possible.
The consequences are stark. A law that criminalizes behavior but fails to enforce it consistently erodes public trust. Citizens see elections manipulated without consequence. Politicians learn that handouts remain the path of least resistance. Democracy suffers not because rules are absent, but because rules are structurally incapable of shaping behavior in real time.
What, then, is the solution? Malawi’s law must evolve to match reality:
Proactive enforcement: Regulators must be empowered to investigate campaigns independently, without waiting for citizen complaints. Mobile teams, surveillance, and field investigations should be standard.
Lowered evidentiary barriers: Administrative penalties, fines, and swift local adjudication can deter vote-buying without requiring proof beyond a criminal standard of intent.
Citizen protection: Witnesses must be shielded from intimidation or retaliation. Anonymous reporting channels and legal safeguards are essential.
Culture change through education: Laws alone cannot shift decades of entrenched expectations. Sustained civic education campaigns should target both voters and political operatives to discourage handouts and normalize accountability.
The Political Parties Act was aspirational, but aspiration is not enough. In its current form, the law cannot knuckle vote-buying because it treats citizens as enforcers, assumes perfect evidence, and ignores cultural realities. Without reform, Malawi will continue to see elections where rules exist on paper but fail in practice, where democracy is celebrated in rhetoric but compromised in reality.
In the end, laws are only as effective as their design and implementation. A system that relies on courage, luck, and citizen initiative to function is not enforcement; it is hope. And hope alone will never win elections fairly — only deliberate, well-resourced, and realistically enforced law can.
