Q: You closed 172 complaints, saying the evidence was weak and the office lacked capacity. Who do you think really failed here? A: I do not think it is fair to talk about failure, either on the part of the citizens or the office.
What should be appreciated is that we are dealing with a deep-seated culture. I do not think it is realistic to expect that the culture of giving handouts would end overnight. You have to appreciate that giving a handout is a criminal offence, according to the Political Parties Act.
The Act says “upon conviction” one is liable to a fine or imprisonment. So, the people complaining and the registrar have to produce evidence in court. It also means that the one accused has a right to enter defence.
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I want you to consider the Malawi Police Service, which has offices and officers all over the country, even in the remotest parts. But even in their case, they are not in every community or village. The majority of cases the police handle are received from people who see and catch suspected thieves and they bring the suspects to police with the evidence and the police pick the matter from there, look at the evidence, gather more and take the matter to court to prove their case, with those people who brought the suspect as witnesses.
The same happens with ACB and other law enforcement agencies. While they can take action on their own initiation, most of the action relies on proactive citizens. No matter how well resourced law enforcement agencies can be, we cannot be everywhere.
Q: Is your office adequately equipped to handle cases that hinge on the culture of handouts? A: Even if we were at our full capacity, we would not be able to be everywhere in the country to cover every activity of politicians. It is simply impossible.
We have to rely on the proactiveness of citizens. That is why we also emphasise on public education. The point I want to stress is that this office was hardly a year old—even though the law came into force in 2018—when we were going into the 2025 elections.
Institutional capacity takes time and resources to develop. It is, therefore, unrealistic to expect the office so too to deal with all the problems and stop all the malpractices within one year. Q: Your office indicates that some complainants pulled back after realising they might have to testify in court.
If you were an ordinary voter watching handouts change hands, what would make you feel protected and safe enough to speak up? A: But that is what that law requires. I have said earlier that handouts are a criminal offence, so the law requires that the accuser has to prove beyond reasonable doubt not only the action, but also the intention.
You can only do this by producing credible evidence in the court of law for the prosecution to have any chance of succeeding. For any law to succeed, it is the duty of the citizen to either abide by it or report violations, not shielding perpetrators. That is what a good citizen ought to do.
This is why I talked about civic education, so that the citizens know about their civic duties, rights and responsibilities. On the other hand, we as a public office have to develop our capacity to be responsive, have the necessary capacity to be able to act on what the citizens may bring forward, but also carry out our own interventions. We did not have all the necessary capacity in the first year of our existence and that is what we are actively and progressively working on.
Q: You keep talking about civic education and better evidence. Can a system that waits for citizens to build cases ever truly deter vote buying? A: Tell me which office or system that completely works on its own without relying on citizens?
The ACB has a full department that goes out civic educating people and encouraging them to report corruption. The police always encourage people to report crime or suspicious activities. Even the electoral commission does the same.
So it is not out of the ordinary for our office to largely rely on citizen action. This is the only way democracy can really thrive. Q: What are you doing to combat the culture of handouts ahead of next months’ by-election?
A: First, we are going to do localised civic education right in the constituencies and wards where by-elections are taking place. Secondly, we are going to have officers roving in the wards and constituencies to monitor campaigns and also where possible, receive and process some complaints. When you talk about the close to 200 cases that we received for the September, 2025 cases, you should appreciate that they were not evenly distributed throughout the campaign period.
Most of them flooded our office shortly before, during and shortly after voting day. People should expect a faster turn-around and depending on the quality of the cases that we may receive, the processing time may be shortened and we may forward the cases to the DPP in good time.
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