No easy task to endhandouts—registrar

Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani has said ending the culture of election campaign handouts lies in enhanced civic education and boosting the capacity of his office. In an interview yesterday in Luwinga Ward in Mzuzu City North Constituency on the sidelines of an awareness meeting with representatives of political parties, block leaders, the clergy and aspirants ahead of the March 17 parliamentary and local government by-elections, he said his office has been facing criticism from stakeholders for allegedly failing to enforce the law on offenders. Tenthani said law enforcement is dependent on a strong relationship between the public and the enforcement agency.

He said his office relies on the vigilance of the public to present admissible evidence, arguing that rooting out the vice requires more civic education for people to understand that handouts are prohibited by law. Said Tenthani: “We need evidence that can stand in court and people who are firm enough to bring us the evidence. Some people ask why we depend on evidence.

What else would we do? Even the police rely on complaints and good evidence. “Even if our office was there for 10 years, we cannot cover the whole country.

[paywall]

If people say we failed because we did not arrest people, then that is unfair. Even the Malawi Electoral Commission has been there for years and it has been improving.” He said to date his office has registered two cases in the run up to the March 17 by-elections, both in Zomba, but indicated that the complaints were being evaluated. National Initiative for Civic Education Trust Mzuzu district programmes officer Freency Mapanga called for increased civic education to achieve mindset change on handouts.

“We are working with the registrar and we have also been engaging the aspirants in the by-elections to emphasise on their policies rather than vote buying,” she said. In a written response yesterday, Centre for Multiparty Democracy executive director Boniface Chibwana said now is the time to capacitate the registrar’s office to ensure efficient handling of complaints. In February this year, Tenthani said his office dismissed 172 cases of campaign handouts in the September 16 2025 General Election due to lack of evidence and failure to investigate.

He said most of the complaints lacked sufficient material for his office to work on while in some cases complainants expected the office to physically visit and conduct investigations. Enacted in 2018, the Political Parties Act established the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties. Section 41 (1) of the Act prohibits any candidate, political party or person contesting in an election from issuing handouts. In May 2025, government gazetted regulations to govern, among others, prohibition of handouts by politicians in line with the Act.

[/paywall]