27 years later MPs still failing

For 27 years, Malawians have told Afrobarometer the same thing: their MPs are not performing.

Not once since 1999 has MP approval reached 50 percent.

The latest survey, released on Wednesday, shows only 36 percent of Malawians approve or strongly approve of their MPs’ performance. Another 38 percent disapprove, while 26 percent are undecided.

The 27-year-old trend has since generated different opinions among institutions and political analysts familiar with democratic governance, who point to a deep and persistent disconnect between voters and their MPs.

Data presented in Afrobarometer’s latest survey, whose findings were shared on Wednesday, shows that in 1999, 48 percent of Malawians perceived MPs to have performed, but the rating dropped to 41 percent in 2003.

In 2005, the perception rating slightly picked up by one percent to 42 percent, but subsequently dropped to 32 percent in 2008.

In 2012, 40 percent of Malawians perceived the MPs to have performed while the rating dropped again to 33 percent in 2014. While the perception rating dropped to 30 percent in 2017, it picked up in 2019 at 44 percent.

MP’s in the National Assembly and (inset Thindwa: I Nation

However, the perception rating later dropped again to 35 percent in 2022 and slightly picked up to 38 percent in 2024.

As of the previous year, findings of the survey shows that only one-third, or 36 percent, approve or strongly approve their MPs have performed their work while 38 percent disapprove.

“The remaining 26 percent are uncertain or decline to offer an opinion,” the survey findings read in part, further indicating that a slim majority of 53 percent trust the legislators.

Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira said in an interview on Friday that the data reflects a longstanding pattern of public frustration with MPs.

He said oftentimes, the lawmakers become visible during campaigns and distant once elected.

“This should prompt questions about whether citizens can see and assess their representatives’ work,” he said. “MP’s must take these findings seriously: election to Parliament is a mandate to serve, not a license for entitlement.”

Kambwandira said MPs must hold regular constituency meetings, report publicly on their parliamentary work, exercise rigorous oversight of public spending and demonstrate responsiveness to citizens’ concerns.

He said confidence will not be restored through speeches and handouts, but through visible service, accountability and results.

Political analyst Ernest Thindwa said in a separate interview on Friday that it will always be a challenge for the performance of MPs by constituents and citizens to improve.

Thindwa said a number of factors are at play, ranging from structural issues, misconceptions about MPs roles, weak accountability mechanism between elections and the nature of Malawian politics.

He said: “MPs main constitutional duties are three; enacting national legislation, providing oversight functions to other arms of government and representing their respective constituencies. These are not the primary basis citizens use to rate MP’s for they do not have a direct bearing on their respective constituencies.

“Secondly, development projects in constituencies which tend to attract disproportionate focus during campaigns are matters that assume centrality for many when rating MPs. Ironically; representatives hardly have capacity to deliver on such matters for they do not have a constitutional mandate or a budget for the same.”

While stating that introduction of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) may improve MP’s capacity to deliver on micro-development projects, Thindwa said a historical account of the fund since inception reveals that not many constituencies can point to anything significant as its outcome.

He said the absence of recognisable outcomes from CDF relative to cumulative allocations to the fund generally exposes weak accountability mechanisms and the predatory nature of Malawian politics.

He added that until elected officials are held accountable and face consequences for underperformance of all forms, accompanied by aggressive and broad-based civic education to empower citizens on their role and means to demand accountability from the elected between elections, the political arena will continue to produce incentive structure for the elected that is public interest averse.

Centre for Multiparty Democracy executive director Boniface Chibwana said there is sometimes a mismatch between people’s expectations and MPs’ roles.

He said: “There is a need to match law making and supervision of local projects which gives visibility of MPs at the local level on which most of the time their performance is measured on those projects.”

Governance commentator Undule Mwakasungula said MPs must remember their primary responsibility is to the people and not merely to their political parties or political leadership.

“To improve their performance, MP’s need to become more visible and accessible to their constituents,” he said. “They should regularly engage communities, listen to their concerns, and follow up on issues affecting people’s lives.”

Mwakasungula further argued that legislators’ performance should be measured not by political speeches and promises, but by their contribution to better accountability and development.

He added that there is a greater need to strengthen Parliament’s independence and oversight role, arguing that MP’s must be able to perform their constitutional responsibilities without undue political interference.

Mwakasungula said: “Party loyalty should never come before the national interest or the responsibility to hold the government accountable.”

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