'Angry, tired, deflated,' Malawians face elections with no hope: Video
With just two weeks until Malawians head to the polls, the national mood is far from hopeful.
“This is not a hopeful election,” Malawian journalist, Jack McBrams, told Global South World. “People are angry, people are tired, but also deflated. They really don’t know what to do.”
The government elected in September 2020 entered office with strong public support after a court nullified the flawed 2019 elections. At the time, citizens were optimistic that change had finally arrived, as the new leadership pledged to fight corruption and tackle poverty.
“There was a lot of optimism when the results were announced in September 2020. The government struck the right notes, they promised the right things, to fight corruption, to end poverty," McBrams said.
That optimism has since faded, McBrams added, “Over the past five years, this government has been a huge disappointment. They have played a ball to corruption. The president himself, his own chief of staff, his own advisors, his own cabinet ministers have been named in several corruption scandals. The chief of staff actually had to return a car that he received as inducement.”
The public mood has also been dampened by severe economic strain. Malawi’s inflation consistently ranks above 25%, with February 2024 hitting 30.7% year-on-year before easing slightly to 27.7% by May 2025. By June, food inflation stood at 31.6%.
The Reserve Bank of Malawi has revised its 2025 forecast upward, now expecting inflation to close at 32.4%. Public debt remains unsustainable, estimated at 86–88% of GDP by late 2024. Efforts to stabilise the economy suffered a major setback in May 2025, when the IMF terminated its $175 million Extended Credit Facility after only $35 million was disbursed.
Despite widespread anger, the electoral contest is dominated by familiar faces. The two leading contenders are the current president, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, viewed by some as a failure and an 85-year-old former president, Peter Mutharika, whom Malawians protested against in 2019–2020. For many Malawians, the lack of new leadership options has created a sense of helplessness and resignation.
“The two contenders for this election are the same people that Malawians are tired of, and one of them or either will be president come September,” McBrams added. “There’s just a sense of hopelessness and helplessness."
Unlike the mass demonstrations of 2019–2020, Malawians seem reluctant to protest this time. “There is anger, but I don’t think people will take to the street. That time they protested and this is where we are right now. Even if they protest and change government, to who? There’s no proper contender. There’s no one that the protest can rally around.”
International observers are arriving, but their credibility is questioned. In 2019, the EU Observer Mission initially said the elections declared the elections to be credible. Yet the court of law declared those elections null and void. Malawians have since questioned the morality of the EU mission coming back.
Looking ahead to September 16, he predicted apathy at the ballot box. “From my analysis, I feel there will be a low voter turnout. I hope and pray that the youth turnout at political rallies would translate to voter turnout at the ballot box. But from the general mood, I don’t see that happening."
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
