When justice shook Malawi’s politics

This week marked six years since the High Court of Malawi, sitting as the Constitutional Court, accomplished what many people in this country and beyond had long believed could never happen in Malawi. On February 3 2020, the five-judge panel of the Court nullified the May 2019 presidential election results after finding that President Peter Mutharika’s re-election on the DPP ticket was marred by widespread irregularities, including the extensive use of Tipp-Ex correction fluid to alter result sheets. In its assessment, the Court determined that the Malawi Electoral Commission’s (MEC) use of Tipp-Ex and other anomalies revealed during months of hearings in Lilongwe had fundamentally compromised the integrity of the election, rendering the presidential vote constitutionally defective.

It subsequently ordered a Fresh Presidential Election within 150 days and clarified that a presidential candidate must secure a majority of 50 percent plus one (50%+1) vote to be declared the winner, ending 26 years of electoral ambiguity. This ruling underscored a key democratic principle that political authority in Malawi is always conditional, accountable to the laws and subject to the Constitution. For the first time in Malawi’s history, the Judiciary unseated a sitting President, surprising many observers after decades of failed presidential election petitions at the High Court, including those brought since 1999 by politicians such as MCP’s Gwanda Chakuamba, JZU and Lazarus Chakwera.

The ruling marked Africa’s second presidential election annulment, following Kenya’s Supreme Court decision to nullify Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2017 victory over irregularities and const itutional concerns. Internationally, Malawi’s Judiciary also received recognition, with the UK-based Chatham House, under the patronage of the British monarch, awarding the presiding judges its 2020 Chatham House Prize for their courage, independence and commitment to the rule of law. The rest, as they say, is history.

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On June 23 2020, Mutharika lost the Fresh Presidential Election to Chakwera, only for the tables to turn on September 16 2025 when Chakwera himself suffered defeat at the hands of his predecessor after failing to deliver on key campaign promises and other commitments. All this provides context for assessing whether the 2020 Constitutional Court ruling truly strengthened Malawi’s electoral system, or merely benefited those who won in 2020. But personally, I think by exposing long-standing structural weaknesses within MEC, the ruling party undeniably strengthened subsequent elections, and evidence is clear.

The 2025 elections were conducted professionally, transparently and peacefully, with MEC demonstrating an institutional commitment to the standards emphasised in the February 2020 judgment. Notably, the greatest ghosts of 2019—Tipp-Ex, altered tally sheets, dubious arithmetic and ghost operators in MEC’s results management system—were absent in 2025. In that sense, the Constitutional Court corrected more than a single election.

Former MEC chairperson Justice Chifundo Kachale oversaw the initial process during the 2020 Fresh Presidential Election, and this has continued since. Unfortunately, the post-2020 period also revealed persistent challenges linked to political practice. Under the MCP regime, governance quality slowed, corruption allegations persisted just as political divisions did and Malawi experienced an extended ‘boma ndi lomweli’ campaign mode that hindered serious policymaking and governance.

Concerns also grew over weakening adherence to accountability and procurement standards, raising questions about commitment to established procedures. During that period, citizens watched a government born of judicial intervention testing constitutional boundaries it had once celebrated. MCP also appeared uneasy with the Anti- Corruption Bureau even after winning the government in 2020 on an anti-corruption platform.

On the other hand, things like mass civil service dismissals prompted questions about due process while some critics noted that many public appointments appeared to prioritise political loyalty over merit. But back to my point. While we rightly acknowledge that the 2020 Constitutional Court judgement strengthened Malawi’s young democracy, its lasting impact now depends less on our Judiciary and more on citizens, including our political leaders.

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