‘Thirty years down the line, are we able to say without flickering an eyelid that the health, happiness, and fortunes and material wellbeing of the people of Malawi as persons or as a group is improving?’
The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has raised questions as to whether the electoral systems in Malawi have made Malawians, lives better since attaining democracy in 1994.
MLS president Patrick Mpaka made the remarks Friday at the society’s Annual General Meeting and conference in Mangochi under the theme: ‘Interrogating the Malawi Electoral Systems Towards 2025 General Elections”.
Mpaka said 17 months from now, Malawians will have to go to the eighth elections to choose duty bearers.
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But he wondered whether the lives of Malawians are improving as it ought to be 30 years down the line.
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“Is this national strategy working at all? Is it worth the ordinary people’s time next year?
“Since 1994, we have engaged this strategy for seven times in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2020. Thirty years down the line are we able to say without flickering an eyelid the health, happiness, and fortunes and material wellbeing of the people of Malawi as persons or as a group is improving?” he questioned.
Mpaka further said the court judgment leading to the Fresh Presidential Election said elections define the roadmap and the lifeline of a society in that the elected few become responsible for the welfare of the wellbeing of the rest of the society.
He argued that the meaning of that part of judgement was that the elected leaders must improve the lives of the people.
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He said there is need for tangible evidence of progress and not the constant economic retrogression that the nation has been facing.
“A roadmap means a plan or strategy intended to achieve a particular goal. Welfare means the health, happiness and fortunes of a person or group or it means a statutory procedure or social effort designed to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people in need. And of course wellbeing means the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy,” he said.
Guest of honour at the meeting, Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) chairperson Chifundo Kachale said elections are important as they give the electorate a chance to do an analysis of the five-year-period of the leaders and decide how to move forward.
“Notionally, that is what the principle of regular competitive elections is supposed to guarantee: an opportunity for the voter to express his or her approval or dissatisfaction with what the incumbents have done (or what the opposition are offering as a policy alternative),” he said.
Kachale said there is need for an informed electorate in order to ensure that elections enhance democratic experience and has since called on the law experts to provide their expertise in promoting informed discussions and democratic responsibilities.
“The MLS and other professional bodies can provide very powerful democratic institutions for organising the society beyond the primordial cultural institutions such as tribe or other subjective social criteria. These institutions have a democratic responsibility to encourage well informed discussions and consideration of issues of national interest in an objective and constructive fashion.
“In a similar manner that MLS conducts legal clinics and provides pro bono legal services, how about considering training and deploy law students as election observers? Their ethical standards should inspire them to avoid becoming captive to other less noble interests,” he said.
Malawi will hold its Tripartite General Election on September 16, 2025.
