25 years in Malawi’s democracy it may be time for them to adopt a more inclusive approach to elections.   

Last Month Malawi held their general elections in one of the tightest races for president the country has seen. President Peter Mutharika had won his second term according to official results protests called by the opposition demanding Mutharika’s resignation following claims that he ‘stole the election’.  Questions over the credibility of the elections themselves are a conversation that should be had, another more pressing and long-standing conversation is whether it is time for Malawi to review its electoral system.  

Malawi’s uses the ‘first-past-the-post’ which is a system where voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice and the winner is determined by a who received the most votes. They also separate voting for the head of state and it’s parliament on two separate ballots. 

The runoff effect of FPTP in Malawi is also that it results in single party governments without majority support, seeing as support is divided between candidates, whatever party is elected, in this case, the Democratic Progressive Party, is a party the majority do not want. Having a party governing with the support of what is the minority of a population severely affects how citizens interact with the government. 

A second consequence that FPTP has had on Malawi is how it clashes with it being a multiparty state. Opinions around multi-party states vs one-party states tend to revolve around the dangers of one-party states slipping into totalitarianism (like multi-party states have are inherently incapable of doing the same) however in states that use FPTP the multiplicity in parties does of two things. It either leads to a two-party state like America, or the multiplicity of parties plays against the smaller parties, which often tend to garner less support than the larger party. What this means when at the ballot is that the votes dived between the many smaller parties reduce chances of victory of them whereas the larger party with a more cemented base is almost guaranteed victory.

 

Dr Jana notes that in 2017 there were proposals for the adoption of the 50%+1 system which means that a candidate should have what would a more accurate majority however that was rejected by both the ruling party and the opposition. 

Ultimately, the recent protests calling for the removal of Mutharika should be coupled with initiatives to review the electoral system to a more inclusive electoral practice that will allow smaller parties access to governance like a proportional representation system. 

 -JP