EXPLORING CAUSES OF CONSISTENTLY OPPOSITE TRENDS IN VOTER TURNOUT IN CHIRADZULU AND BLANTYRE IN MALAWI

Abstract

Voter turnout in Malawi has been on the decline with a slight improvement in 2014. However trends in Chiradzulu and Blantyre continue to raise interest as these two districts have maintained consistency with high turnout and low turnout respectively despite the general national trend. Specifically, the study wanted to establish factors that are responsible for the opposite trends. The study focused on reasons that prompt people to vote/ not to vote, party group linkages, political landscape and socio economic settings of rural versus urban and semi urban areas. The study sampled four constituencies, two in Chiradzulu and two in Blantyre through purposive sampling using the 2014 Presidential and Parliamentary results. Apart from secondary information, data was mainly collected through focus group discussions and one to one interviews. Focus group discussions engaged voters and non-voters while one to one interviews aimed at district governors, constituency governors and area governors and local chiefs. The data was analyzed qualitatively through thematic analysis. The study established that where a party favours unpopular candidate, people tend to vote more in trying to make their favourite candidate who stand on independent ticket to win. It also established that handouts have both a negative and a positive effect on turnout. The other finding was that MPs absences from their constituency have an effect on people’s interest to turnout to vote. The study also found that most non-voters belong to political parties while some voters have no party. Finally, the study also established that the use of voter Identity Card (ID) for other purposes other than voting gives false expectation of anticipated turnout.