Malawi flag Malawi: Economic and Political Overview

The political framework of Malawi

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders
President: Lazarus Chakwera (since 28 June 2020)
Vice President: Saulos Chilima (since 3 February 2020)
Next Election Dates
Presidential Election: 2025
National Assembly: May 2024
Main Political Parties
Malawi is a multi-party state system. The main political parties include:

- Malawi Congress Party (MCP): centre-right (current President Lazarus Chakwera belongs to the MCP)
- United Transformation Movement (UTM): centre to centre-right
- Democratic Progressive Party (DPP): liberal
- United Democratic Front (UDF): centre-left
- People's Party (PP): centre-right
- Alliance for Democracy (AFORD): centre-left.
Executive Power
Th executive power is exercised by the government. The President of Malawi, elected through universal direct suffrage every 5 years, is both chief of state and head of the executive power. The President appoints his Cabinet, whose members can be drawn from either within or outside of the Parliament.
Together with the President, a vice-president is elected. The president can choose to appoint a second vice president, who must be from a different party.
Legislative Power
Legislative power is vested in the Parliament, which under the Constitution has two chambers: the National Assembly - with its 193 members elected for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies - and the Senate - which was originally meant to have 80 seats and had to represent traditional leaders, different geographical districts and special interest groups (such as women, the disabled, young people), but which has never been created.
 

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

Definition:

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:
62/180
 

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:
Partly Free
Political Freedom:
3/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

 

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Latest Update: December 2023

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