The current president of Malawi: Dr. Bakili Muluzi

Established at the end of Kamuzu Banda’s 30 year control, the Malawian form of democracy is relatively similar to that of many African democratic states surrounding it. Interestingly, the parliamentary system of Banda’s era (loosely based on the British system) still exists in Malawi today. The main difference being that there are multiple parties represented in the parliament and the people of Malawi vote representatives into office. When the new government was designed, it called for the creation of a Senate to represent, by population, the people of Malawi. In 2000, it was decided that the Malawi government did not have the resources to create the Senate, and the idea was abandoned.

At the moment, there are three major parties represented in government: Banda’s former ruling party, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) and the currently ruling United Democratic Front (UDF). Essentially, these three parties differ very little; their main differences lie in the spread of support throughout the country which seems to correspond quite noticeably to geographic region. For example, the northern region tends to support AFORD, the central region MCP and the southern region UDF.

A presidential term is five years. Originally, the new Malawian constitution limited an individual to one term. At the end of President Muluzi’s first term, the constitution was changed to allow another term if elected. Muluzi was elected for his second term in 1999 amidst and despite heavy protest from the northern areas of Malawi.

The new government does have a few things that it boasts. The UDF claims that since the 1994, Muluzi has successfully created a free primary school education system and drilled over 30,000 bore holes in the remote areas of the country. Muluzi’s government has also taken steps to open trade agreements between Malawi and the United States. Severe economic problems, however, still dominate the country with the UDF’s attempts to improve having little effect. Change is happening for the better in Malawi, just very slowly.