It has a democratic and multi-party government, currently under President Bingu wa Mutharika. The current constitution was promulgated on May 18, 1995. As in other democracies, power is divided into three: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is made up of the president, who is the head of state, the first and second vice presidents, and a cabinet. The president is elected every five years, and the vice president is elected together with him. A second vice president can be elected if the president so wishes, although he must belong to another political party. Cabinet members are elected by the president and can be from within or outside the legislature.
The army is made up of the armed forces, a navy and an air force. Between the three there are more than 5,500 military personnel, 1,500 paramilitary police officers and 80 aircraft, none of which is a fighter plane. The marina is headquartered in Monkey Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi.
Political parties
There are currently nine political parties, with the Democratic Progressive Party being the country’s leading political force, followed by the Malawi Congressional Party (MCP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF). Suffrage is universal from the age of 18, and in 2008 the government had a budget of $ 1.24 billion.
- United Democratic Front (FDU), whose leader, Bakili Muluzi, the current president of Malawi.
- Alliance for Democracy (APD).
- Malawi Congress Party (PCM), of former dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Social Organizations
The official Malawi Congressional Union, founded in 1964. Formerly Nyasaland, as a country located in Africa according to THESCIENCETUTOR, Malawi was once called Maravi, or “reflected light,” perhaps referring to the sun’s shining on Lake Malawi. The shores of Lake Malawi have been inhabited for thousands of years according to remains found in recent archaeological excavations. The majority of the current population belongs to Bantu ethnic groups that arrived in the region some time before the arrival of the first Arab slave traders and the first Portuguese explorers. British missionaries and colonizers appear from the end of the 1850s, after the passage through the country of Dr David Livingstone.
The fertile lands of Malawi favored the rapid establishment of English settlers and the commercial development of the region, and in 1891 they declared the constitution of the British Protectorate of Nyasaland. In 1953 British Nyasaland joined with Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) to form the Federation of Rodhesia and Nyasaland.
This Confederation would end in 1964, with the independence of Malawi, after the election, in 1963, of Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda as the highest representative of the country and of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) that obtained the majority in the Legislative Council. Two years later, President Banda would declare the Republic of Malawi as a one-party state and mandatory for all citizens to belong to the (MCP). In 1971 Banda was appointed President for Life, developing in the following years a repressive policy against any opposition that arose.
The leader of the Malawi Socialist League, Dr Attati Mpakati, was forced into exile and in 1983 was found assassinated. The founders of the Malawi Freedom Movement, Orton and Vera Chirwa, were imprisoned in 1981 and charged with ‘conspiracy’. The union leader, Chakufwa Chihana was imprisoned in 1970 spending seven years in prison and being sentenced to two years in prison again, in 1992 accused of “sedition”. Its constant violation of human rights did not prevent the United States from publicly announcing its unconditional support for the Banda government in 1991.
Since his appointment, Banda maintained very close relations with the racist governments of South Africa and Zimbabwe, collaborating closely with the Portuguese in the repression of the independence movements, and after the independence of Mozambique, in 1975, helping the rebel groups of the National Resistance of Mozambique (RENAMO), financed by the white governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa, in their armed confrontation against the government army of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO).
The independence of Mozambique and Zimbabwe later left Malawi isolated from its main political and commercial partners, while the new situation favored the strengthening of opposition parties: the Socialist League of Malawi (LESOMA), favorable to the severing of economic and political ties with South Africa, the end of the Banda dictatorship and the democratization of the country, and the Movement for the Freedom of Malawi (MAFREMO).
But the international changes after the disappearance of the military blocs, meant that the Banda regime began to receive pressure to end so much repression and political assassination, which together with the increase in popular discontent due to the disastrous economic situation of the population and the rise Due to the presence of the opposition parties, they forced a referendum to be held in 1993 on the end of the one-party system and the democratization of public life.
