Now that we know that over seven million Malawians have shown interest to vote, political architects are polishing up their promises ahead of the September 16, 2025 General Eletion.
These promises are inscribed in social contracts called manifestos which the National Planning Commission has directed should be aligned to the Malawi 2063.
We take a look at what Malawians were promised in 2019 by three political parties; Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM.
While they shared common developmental pillars— such as economic growth, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, governance, youth empowerment, security, public sector reforms, and foreign policy—the feasibility of these promises varied.
DPP
- Advertisement -
We have introduced Free Secondary Education. Moving forward… the DPP government will continue with the Free Secondary School education. We will abolish all developments and other payments,
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration abolished tuition fees in public secondary schools on September 25 2018. However, the legs of the decision were very short to continue as the students continued paying. Unicef estimated an annual cost of K7.33 billion for 733 Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSSs), making full implementation unsustainable.
We will upgrade all Community Day Secondary Schools to the level of conventional secondary school in order to improve education quality.”
Already, at the time of the manifesto there were approximately 1,101 community day secondary schools (CDSS) in the country, representing the majority of secondary schools in the country. According to the Ministry of Education, conventional secondary schools are those with proper structures like libraries, laboratories, hostels in some cases and of course enough qualified teachers. However, at the time of the manifesto development there were less than 500 laboratories out of the over 1,000 schools.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
We will construct a dual carriage highway from Blantyre to Mzuzu through Lilongwe.
This was also unattainable in five years. The rehabilitation of the M1 road which started around 2018 is a classic example. The rehabilitation works have already passed over seven years and of course works are still ongoing.
MCP
Set up a bank to concentrate on giving credit to the youth and women to increase their access to and full participation in the country’s mainstream economic processes.
It is common knowledge that many youth- and women-led businesses are startups, which face a high risk of failure. Without strong repayment structures, non-performing loans could cripple the bank. If the bank is state-run, there is a risk of political favoritism in loan approvals, leading to inefficiencies and corruption. A case in point is the Malawi Savings Bank.
Introduce universal Farm Input Subsidy Program
Implementing a universal subsidy requires substantial financial resources, which could strain the national budget and could lead to increased public debt. Again, the country is struggling with implementation of the input subsidy.
Deal with electricity blackouts within the first year of taking government, targeting to generate at least 2,000 megawatts of electricity within the next five years.
As of 2018, there was a total installed capacity of over 400MW against an estimated demand of about 700MW. At the time of this analysis, we were at 384MW. This was one unrealistic promise.
Reduce presidential powers
It still remains a promise on paper. Trimming presidential powers, requires legislative and constitutional amendments. To date the president is still the chancellor of all universities, for example, despite promising he would stop this.
UTM
Amend section 91(2) of the Constitution to remove Presidential immunity from criminal prosecution while in office.
From the outset, this is one bold step towards fighting corruption. However, this could lead to frequent legal battles protracted by the opposition parties and interest groups against a sitting President, diverting attention from governance and national priorities. Perhaps this is why it has not seen the light of the day.
UTM shall ensure that Malawi is among the 50 least corrupt countries in the world and 10 least corrupt countries in Africa under Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index in three years’ time.
Corruption is multifaced and fighting it requires addressing deep-rooted structural, political, and economic challenges. What could stand in the way of this promise could be selective justice, slow judicial processes and limited capacity of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) among others. At the time of this promise, Malawi was on position 120 out 180 countries.
Five years later, despite various interventions Malawi has only moved five steps to position 115 in 2023.
Phasing out the Farm Inputs Subsidy Program.
This was the party that was promised to sell the fertiliser at K4,495 per 50 kilogramme bag, more of a universal subsidy. We have discussed how this programme can be problematic.
UTM commits to achieving 100 per cent penetration of ICT services in Malawi by 2024.
At the time of the manifesto the ICT penetration in Malawi was low. Only radio broadcasting was at an acceptable level of penetration at around 80 percent of the country’s population. Tele–density was at around 50 percent. Television broadcasting
penetration is at less than 20 percent. Mobile phone penetration was low, at about 40 percent. The promise was quite ambitious, given the state of ICT infrastructure at the time. Several major challenges such as poor infrastructure development, poor electricity supply, high cost of ICT Services, monopoly or dominance of a few telecom companies, affecting competition and pricing, digital literacy and skills gap and geographical challenges. Unless there was massive investment and policy reform, achieving 100 percent penetration by 2024 was unlikely.
Establish “The Elderly Pension Fund” with a monthly pay out of K15, 000 to all people aged 65 years or above;
The idea was noble, especially considering the economic struggles of older citizens face in the country. However, its feasibility depended on several factors. With a large and growing elderly population, the government would need substantial funds to sustain the program. Malawi already struggles with a high budget deficit and dependence on donor aid, making it difficult to allocate additional resources. Without a clear, sustainable funding model the program could be dead before arrival.
Conclusion
While some commitments could have been feasible with better planning and financing, many were unrealistic within the five-year timeframe. As Malawians prepare to vote, they must critically assess political promises against past performance.
