Overview

• Amnesty urges candidates to commit to protecting rights before, during, and after the polls, setting eight priorities for the next president and parliament.
• Priorities include the right to food, women’s rights, freedoms of association and expression, and protections for persons with disabilities, including people with albinism, with implementation of the Disability Act of 2024.
• The group calls for reviewing restrictive measures, criticizing the 2022 NGO amendment law and the 2016 Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act for curbing dissent and targeting journalists.
• The manifesto presses for full implementation of the Access to Information Act and legal changes such as abolishing the death penalty and repealing laws criminalizing consensual same‑sex conduct.
• The appeal follows unmet governance pledges in President Lazarus Chakwera’s first term and recent attacks on election protesters, as Malawians prepare to elect national and local leaders on September 16.