By Brenda Kayo:
With just five months to the September 16, 2025 Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections, political violence continues to haunt the country; now taking place during the administration of primary elections for both governing and opposition parties.
And police officers continue to get blamed for the situation, with some quarters claiming that cases are being registered on law enforcers’ watch.
Trends show that armed people have disrupted some of the recent primary elections in a number of constituencies.
Both the governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have borne the brunt of such cases.
Recent cases of violence have been reported in Lilongwe Central Constituency, Chikwawa North Constituency, Kasungu North North East Constituency, Mulanje Central Constituency and Dowa Ngala, among others.
In Lilongwe Central Constituency, drama ensued at Chalendewa ground on Wednesday when bouncers descended on a monitor for one candidate, Herbert Mtoso, who seemed to be leading in the race of six candidates.
The armed people snatched all the votes for Mtoso from his monitor and escaped from the scene with the papers.
Mtoso’s monitor, Francis Julius Koloko, said drama unfolded in front of police officers, and yet no action was taken.
He said this raises questions about the ability of police personnel to maintain law and order during the administration of primary elections.
“It was like they were merely watching as the people took over. Police officers seemed reluctant to intervene and it was clear that they were not interested in stopping the violence,” he said.
This is happening when the Inspector General of Police Merlyne Yolamu recently assured parliamentarians that the Malawi Police Service would not tolerate any case of political violence in the country.
During a recent parliamentary meeting with members of the Defence and Security Committee, Yolamu said the police would prevent and respond to incidents of violence.
Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Ching’oma said Thursday that those perpetrating violence were getting arrested.
MCP spokesperson Jessie Kabwila said whenever people are fighting for power, violence tends to happen.
But she said MCP was working tirelessly to manage the situation.
“We have called all our members within our party to discuss and mitigate the situation. You will see [that] we will continue with the primaries and it will be peaceful elections,” Kabwila said.
DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito said violence during primary elections tended to happen due to intense competition and external influences, which he said could prompt candidates and supporters to adopt aggressive tactics to secure nominations.
He said DPP had put in place measures to mitigate the vice.
“We have made concerted efforts to resolve all disputes before the primary elections commence. In fact, candidates are given the opportunity to review the voter registration lists well in advance of the primaries.
“On the day of the primaries, the same registration list [that was] used for verification is employed again to call out names before proceedings begin,” Mukhito said.
Meanwhile, political analyst George Chaima has said violence and misunderstandings that are happening are a man-made problem that was arising out of greed, selfishness and lack of love for the country by politicians.
“They actually know that, in a democracy, the power and freedom to choose a leader belongs to the people but the politicians are hijacking the right and freedom of the citizenry and taking things in their hands. They have no right to impose leaders on people,” Chaima said.
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