By Vincent Gunde
The Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has officially launched the 2025 campaign period with a call to voters, party supporters and candidates to reject politics of insults, castigations and character assassinations.
Ever since 1994, politics in Malawi has been characterized by insults, castigations and character assassinations for the voters to lose trust with the candidate who is being favored to win the elections and this end up in lawsuits.
Launching the campaign in Lilongwe, Mec Chairperson Justice Annabel Mtalimanja, said politics of insults, castigations and character assassinations are unwelcome in a democratic society saying this make the public to lose trust with the electoral processes.
Justice Mtalimanja said Malawian voters are interested with issue-based campaign for their lives to be improved and not character assassinations which in the end don’t bring tangible development to the communities.
She said Malawian voters are tired of listening to politics of insults, castigations and character assassinations as no one eats politics but development advising voters to reject at all cost politics of insults for the country to move forward.
“Let’s embrace the spirit of national unity by ensuring that throughout the campaign period, hate speeches and insults must be avoided,” said Justice Mtalimanja.
She has urged all political parties and candidates to uphold democratic values in the run-up to the 16th September, 2025 elections for peace to prevail in the country so that the voters make intelligent decisions of voting for candidates of their choice.
Mrs. Elizabeth Kaliza Banda of Area 51 in Lilongwe, has advised Justice Mtalimanja to summon MBC management to stop airing and beaming programmes such as “ Ndawala, Timvetse and Chindunji,” claiming that these programmes are promoting hate speeches.
Kaliza Banda said MBC management must always be reminded that the cooperation is being run with tax payers’ money and people paying taxes to it should not be complaining that some other politicians are using the radio and television station to serve their own greed.
She has warned Mtalimanja that if these programmes continue on MBC Radio and Television, politics of insults and character assassinations will be the order of the day throughout the campaign period advising Mec to tread this very carefully.
“Opposition parties and their supporters’ respects Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika that he is a statesman and any insults and castigations against him, Malawians will respond with anger,” said Kaliza Banda.
She has finally reminded Malawians that in June, 2020 they voted for youth leadership of Chakwera-Chilima, the country has gone to the dogs in 5 years of President Chakwera and the MCP saying time has come for proven leadership to bail out Malawians from slavery.
