Malawi: Local Government Elections and Devolution of Power

Malawi On 24 May 2010, international experts, local academia, the media and civil society came together in Blantyre to debate how Malawi can genuinely devolve power, decentralise and empower its citizens politically. The main presenters of the seminar were Dr Nandini Patel, the Head of Department of Political Leadership, Catholic University of Malawi; Dr Gerard Chigona, a Lecturer, Trainer, Social Researcher and Publisher on Human Rights, Gender & Development, Decentralisation & Governance; Dr Mustafa Hussein, a Political Science lecturer and Mr Hubertus von Welck, the FNF Africa Regional Director.

Malawi’s politics are officially working under a two tier system, which in practice however, function as one single tier. The executive powers of the president are such that he has absolute command over all departments, which report to him directly, leaving the ministers with very little influence or say in matters. Since Malawi reverted to democracy through the referendum of June 14, 1993, the country has held four general elections to elect the president and members of parliament. Despite the constitution dictating that local government elections be held once every five years, only one such election has ever been conducted in 2000.

In her presentation entitled “Lack of accountability and separation of powers in the presidential system of Malawi”, Dr Patel highlighted that the 2009 elections, which gave a landslide victory to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and a second term to Dr Mutharika, began with an assurance of not ‘abusing majority status in parliament’ - an expression used repeatedly by executive power wielders. However, from the outset of the second term of the DPP, it proceeded to tamper with the process of the selection of the leader of the opposition by insisting that the said person must be elected by all the parties in parliament (including the party in majority). The fractious success of this strategy further weakened the opposition and reduced the Honourable House into a virtual 'rubber stamp' institution that passes any bill tabled by the Executive with a cursory inspection regardless of its importance.

Decentralisation devolves political, economic and managerial power to the people through regional, district and local structures while the central government handles broader issues of lawmaking and policy formulation. Instead of expecting MPs to “bring development to their constituencies” they can concentrate on their constitutional mandate of law making while the policy implementation rests within the local government structures. When development projects are implemented by local councils or assemblies, it is easier to distribute the wealth of a country more equitably. With the upcoming local government elections set to take place in November 2010, representatives of political parties, academia and civil society who attended the seminar agreed to embark on a campaign to lobby for decentralization based on a three tier system.

Dr Chigona agreed that generally, a three tier model seems to have the potential of resolving the problem of “Big Governments” that do little. These tiers should be structured from the national to the regional to the district level. These tiers have the ability to defuse potential conflict arising from the scramble for material and financial resources - the “National Cake Problem”. It provides the possibility for positive competition in matters of development between regions. Normally, strictly centralized states are slow at effecting development. Among other issues, they deprive the general population from managing their resources, making it ever expectant of the central government to deliver, even on minor cases.

Following the conference, a forum, which will table a document that sets out the infrastructure and implementation of decentralization within Malawi, will be coordinated by Mr Clement Stambuli, the Director of Campaigns and International Affairs Liaisons person in the United Democratic Front (UDF) which is a full member of the African Liberal Network. There will also be a website with the results and presentations of the seminar, which will continually be used as a platform for exchange and discussions in the lead up to the local government elections later this year. Public pressure to call for reform of the government management system will set the ball rolling for effective change, which will hopefully translate into efficient management of public services and human development in the long run.

The meeting was coordinated by Mr Stambuli from the United Democratic Front, a full member of the Africa Liberal Network (ALN). The organisation of the seminar was supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.


Masechaba Mdaka
Project Officer
FNF Johannesburg

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