Malawians losing trust in elections – survey reveals

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malawi-elections

Malawians are lamenting that general elections are giving the country bad leaders as support for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leadership continues to flop, a study conducted by Afrobarometer and the University of Malawi has revealed.

malawi-elections
Elections producing bad results – Malawians

The study, published today, shows that more Malawians are now questioning the electoral system as the best way of choosing the country’s leaders.

“The proportion of Malawians who say elections are the best way of choosing the country’s leaders dropped from 71% in 2014 to 57% in 2017,” reads part of the study.

An increasing proportion of Malawians thinks the country should adopt other methods other than elections which they said “sometimes produce bad results”.

In addition, the study also shows that the majority of Malawians are questioning the current set up of the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC). Most of those who were interviewed expressed a strong support for “revised selection process for MEC members based on applications and interviews rather than political-party nominations and presidential appointments”.

The researchers also discovered that a majority of the people would prefer having the country set an age limit to stop old candidates from running for presidential office.

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across the continent.

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