This survey on public perceptions and views on Malawi’s political environment was conducted in August and September 2018. The main objective of the study was to gauge people’s views on the state of their country ahead of May 2019 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. The study sought to map the country’s political landscape and highlight major factors that were likely to shape its political and economic future.

A nationally representative sample of 1,350 adult Malawians was drawn from a framework provided by the National Statistical Office (NSO). Data for the survey was captured on tablets running on the Open Data Kit (ODK) application and submitted directly to an IPOR server. Among other tasks, IPOR developed and translated the study’s questionnaire; recruited and trained enumerators; collected, cleaned and analyzed data; and wrote the study’s report.

The study found that significant proportions of Malawians held the views that the country was going in the wrong direction, the overall economic condition of the country was fairly bad/very bad and the political environment was relatively free for those who wanted to join organizations of their choice; that majorities of citizens were satisfied with how democracy was working in the country and said people were free to say what they want concerning politics; and that Malawians were split on the state of the country’s democracy with one half rating the country as a democracy with major problems or not a democracy at all and the other half saying it is a full democracy or a democracy with minor problems. The study also registered that people’s trust in religious leaders, the Malawi Defence Force and traditional leaders was high with elected political leaders pegged on the lower side of the public-trust ladder; that a majority of Malawians held the view that corruption had increased over the past 12 months; and that food shortage, management of the economy and poverty or destitution topped the list of critical challenges that Malawians expected their government to address. The study was commissioned by the Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) with funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).