Malawi's election is one of survival

The country has a collapsing currency and public sector, widespread hunger and corruption linked to the police, military and presidency

- Collins Mtika

Five years after a court-ordered vote in 2020 electrified the continent, Malawians head to the polls under the shadow of drought, inflation and vanishing trust in government.

Once a symbol of Africa's democratic renewal, Malawi is now spiraling into crisis. With its currency in freefall, families scavenging for food, and corruption scandals tainting the highest offices, September's election may determine whether the state itself can hold together.

As Malawians prepare to vote on 16 September, the nation faces overlapping emergencies: economic collapse, hunger and the erosion of public trust.

What should be a routine tripartite election, for president, parliament and local councils, has instead become a referendum on whether democracy itself can withstand the strain.

Malawi has been here before. Since independence in 1964, the country has oscillated between authoritarianism and fragile democracy. Its first multiparty elections in 1994 ended 30 years of one-party rule under Hastings Banda. Since then, Malawi's democratic record has been uneven, marked by disputed elections, donor suspensions and recurrent scandals.

The reformist promises that swept President Lazarus Chakwera, of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), to power in 2020, on the back of the Tonse Alliance, a coalition that united opposition forces, once raised hopes of a new era. That election was celebrated worldwide as a triumph of judicial independence, after the Constitutional Court annulled the 2019 results because of irregularities.

But by 2025, Chakwera's government has become engulfed in the very problems it vowed to overcome: a collapsing currency, an El Niño-driven drought, and scandals at the highest levels.