The sun beats down mercilessly on the dusty roads of Ntchisi district as Peter Mutharika’s motorcade slowly advances through the Central Region. Suddenly, the calm is shattered by the sound of stones striking metal. Within minutes, vehicles are ablaze, black smoke billowing into the sky as DPP supporters scatter in panic.
Just two weeks later, in nearby Mponela, a minibus carrying blue-clad supporters to a rally meets the same fiery fate.
This is Malawi in 2025 – a nation barreling toward a September election with democracy itself hanging in the balance.
At 84, former President Peter Mutharika stands defiant before a sea of blue flags in Blantyre, his voice carrying surprisingly well across the crowd of thousands.
“Human rights are being trampled,” he thunders, his finger jabbing the air accusingly. “Chakwera must declare that the Central Region is not a no-go zone for opposition parties. Malawi belongs to all of us!”
The crowd roars in approval. Five years after his stunning defeat in the court-ordered election rerun, the former law professor is pursuing what many call his final political act – a comeback that would be unprecedented in Malawi’s tumultuous democratic history.
Just 100 kilometres north in Lilongwe, Richard Chimwendo Banda – known as “The Bulldozer” for his uncompromising political style – rallies MCP supporters in a sea of red.
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“Opposition parties should forget about forming government on September 16,” he declares with unwavering confidence. “MCP is not just present; MCP is here to stay!”
Behind him, massive billboards showcase President Lazarus Chakwera inaugurating new roads, irrigation schemes, and hospital wings – the visible fruits of his administration’s development agenda.
The political map of Malawi tells a story of regional strongholds that feels almost tribal in its intensity. The Central Region pulses red with MCP loyalty, while the more populous South remains predominantly blue DPP territory. Between them, the smaller Northern Region serves as a crucial battleground where every vote could determine the nation’s future.
Joyce Banda, the former president whose brief tenure (2012-2014) was marred by the “Cashgate” scandal, mounts her own campaign, though her People’s Party lacks the infrastructure of the two giants. Her presence divides the anti-incumbent vote, potentially benefiting Chakwera’s reelection hopes.
“We have 7,200,905 registered voters,” explains Electoral Commissioner Martha Msiska during a press briefing in Lilongwe. “The Central Region leads with 3,488,511, followed by the South with 2,817,308, and the North with 895,086. With our 50+1 system, any winning candidate needs over 3.6 million votes.”
Her unspoken implication hangs in the air: no single party commands such numbers alone.
Joseph Mwanamvekha, the DPP’s Vice-President and former Finance Minister, paces anxiously before a gathering of international journalists at Capital Hotel.
“The IMF’s suspension of the Extended Credit Facility isn’t just a technical matter,” he explains, his economist’s precision making the crisis all the clearer. “It means worsening foreign exchange shortages, further currency devaluation, rising inflation, and critical shortages of essential commodities including medicines and fuel.”
Outside the hotel’s manicured grounds, these academic-sounding concerns translate into real suffering: queues at gas stations stretch for kilometers, hospital pharmacies sit empty, and food prices soar beyond reach for many families.
In the DPP stronghold of Blantyre, Mutharika promises economic revival. “When we return to power, we will restore Blantyre as the economic capital,” he pledges, “by returning all parastatals that were moved to Lilongwe. This city built Malawi, and we will rebuild this city!”
The MCP counters with its own economic narrative. Chimwendo Banda showcases Chakwera’s massive investments in agriculture, including irrigation schemes that have helped weather erratic rainfall patterns.
“Look at the Shire Valley Transformation Project,” he boasts during a rally in Nkhotakota. “That single initiative will irrigate over 43,000 hectares, benefiting over 223,000 farmers directly. Which previous government ever achieved such transformation?”
Inside the Malawi Electoral Commission’s operations center in Blantyre, technicians from Smartmatic – the election technology provider – calibrate equipment for the upcoming polls.
Mutharika views their presence with open suspicion. “Why this company? Why now?” he questioned at a press conference last month, seeding doubts about electoral integrity.
The ghost of the 2019 election – when the Constitutional Court nullified results due to widespread irregularities – haunts the current electoral landscape. That unprecedented judicial intervention, which led to Chakwera’s victory in the 2020 rerun, remains both a source of pride for Malawi’s democratic institutions and a reminder of their fragility.
As dusk falls over Mponela, police investigators sift through the charred remains of the DPP minibus. No arrests have been made, and witnesses offer contradicting accounts about who started the violence.
“Those who permit evil are as guilty as those who commit it,” Mutharika declares from the safety of Blantyre, implicitly blaming Chakwera and Chimwendo Banda for the attacks.
The MCP leader has a ready counterargument: “He should start by condemning his NGC members who’ve called for violence against MCP supporters—including chasing women wearing our party colours.”
Both leaders condemn violence in principle while accusing each other of orchestrating it in practice. Meanwhile, civil society organisations report rising tensions in communities where DPP and MCP supporters have lived as neighbours for generations.
In the remote district of Neno, President Chakwera cuts a ribbon, officially opening a newly paved 45-kilometre road that connects previously isolated communities to markets and services.
“This is not just asphalt and concrete,” he tells the gathered crowd. “This is the path to prosperity, to healthcare, to education for your children.”
His administration has indeed delivered visible infrastructure: roads carving through previously inaccessible areas, modern school blocks replacing dilapidated structures, irrigation canals bringing water to parched fields.
Yet critics question the sustainability of these projects, pointing to mounting national debt and the suspended IMF facility. “You cannot eat a road,” goes a popular opposition saying, capturing the tension between visible development and economic hardship.
The August 2024 Afrobarometer survey hovers over the campaign like a spectre: 43% for DPP, 29% for MCP. Though conducted nearly a year before the actual election, it provides the DPP with a powerful narrative of momentum.
“The people have spoken,” insists DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba. “They’ve experienced five years of Chakwera’s mismanagement, and they want change.”
Chimwendo Banda dismisses these numbers with characteristic bravado. “A sample of 1,200 during our economic challenges cannot predict what 7.2 million voters will decide after seeing our complete development agenda,” he argues.
Both sides are right, in their way. The poll captured genuine economic discontent, but much can change in a year – particularly in Malawi’s volatile political landscape.
At a cafe in Lilongwe’s Area 18, a group of female politicians from different parties gather discretely, united by their shared marginalisation.
“Women hold only 25% of the DPP National Governing Council positions,” laments Catherine Gotani Hara, Malawi’s first female Speaker of Parliament. “The MCP is slightly better, but our political space remains overwhelmingly male-dominated.”
This gender imbalance shapes policy priorities and campaign rhetoric, with women’s issues often relegated to special interest status rather than being central to national development.
As September 16, 2025, approaches, Malawi stands at a crossroads. The election will test not just the popularity of two aging political leaders but the resilience of democratic institutions that have shown both strength and vulnerability in recent years.
“No matter who wins,” remarks political analyst Boniface Dulani of the University of Malawi, “the true measure of success will be whether we can conduct this election without bloodshed, accept the results with grace, and move forward as one nation.”
In Ntchisi, where Mutharika’s motorcade was attacked, local chiefs from both MCP and DPP-supporting areas have initiated peace dialogues. In Blantyre and Lilongwe, youth groups are signing non-violence pledges. These grassroots efforts offer hope that Malawi’s democracy, though strained, may yet endure.
As the sun sets over the nation’s rolling landscapes, the question remains: Will Malawi’s next chapter be written in votes or in violence? The world watches, and Malawians pray.
