Country

Malawi

Hybrid Authoritarian

0.27%

of the world’s population

22,785,500 people

Source: Tyranny Tracker

Overview

HRF classifies Malawi as ruled by a hybrid authoritarian regime.

Malawi is a unitary presidential republic. President Peter Mutharika, the Head of State, was democratically elected in the September 2025 elections. The political landscape is dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the main opposition, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Since the end of Kamuzu Banda’s dictatorship following the 1993 referendum and the introduction of multiparty elections in May 1994, Malawi has had six successive presidents and four handovers of power between the governing and opposition parties. In 2019, the court annulled the presidential election after finding widespread and systematic irregularities, removing the declared victory of the incumbent and making Malawi only the second country in Africa, after Kenya, where a judicial ruling overturned an incumbent’s electoral win.

Key Highlights

Electoral competition is significantly skewed in favor of the regime, to the point that the real, mainstream political opposition has a highly unlikely, although realistic, chance of winning. The regime’s significant and unfair campaign advantages have seriously undermined the real and mainstream opposition’s ability to compete. The regime has also seriously undermined independent electoral oversight.

Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, and ordinary citizens are seriously and unfairly hindered in their ability to criticize or challenge the regime openly. The regime has seriously intimidated independent and dissenting media, civil society leaders, and regular people, or otherwise, by seriously and unfairly obstructing their work. More than 14 journalists have reported threats and harassment in connection with their reporting since Chakwera took office in 2020.

Institutions are largely independent and serve as effective checks on the regime, consistently restraining attempts to repress criticism, undermine electoral competition, and weaken or dismantle accountability mechanisms. In 2019, the courts nullified the presidential election, and in 2025, they declared criminal defamation laws used against regime critics unconstitutional.

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