[2][needs update] Scholars have remarked on Malawi as an unusually resilient democracy given that it has many of the preconditions for democratic backsliding such as a weak economy, low state capacity, politically salient ethnic divisions, and a recent authoritarian past.
[3] Under the 1995 constitution, the president, who is both chief of state and head of the government, is chosen through universal direct suffrage every 5 years.
Bakili Muluzi was president from 21 May 1994 to May 2004, having won reelection in 2000 with 51.4% of the vote to leading challenger Gwandaguluwe Chakuamba's 44.3% for the MCP-AFORD party.
[15][16] Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera won 2020 Malawian presidential election and he was sworn in as the new president of Malawi.
In 2020 Malawi Constitutional Court annulled president Peter Mutharika’s narrow election victory and re-election because of irregularities.
Opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera won 2020 Malawian presidential election and he became the new president.
The Senate is intended to provide representation for traditional leaders and the different geographical districts, as well as various special interest groups, such as women, youth, and the disabled.
In addition, mainly in rural areas, there are several levels of local courts with varying powers to hear disputes such as divorces and other matrimonial issues, inheritance and access to land based on traditional customary law.
these courts also heard minor criminal cases specified in the Malawi Penal Code, using an expedited procedure.
Parliamentary reaction was hostile, and several speakers, including ministers, openly suggested that European judges and the European-style legal system had allowed clearly guilty defendants to escape the punishment they deserved.
Aleke Banda, the Minister of Finance, particularly attacked the use of defence lawyers and the legal safeguards imposed by the English-law Rules of evidence.
Banda (who had become President in 1966) said that, if the judge had any conscience, he should resign and specifically linked traditional law to making punishment certain, claiming that lack of evidence was not proof of innocence.
The majority of the judges were chiefs without legal training, appointed by and liable to dismissal by Banda, so without any judicial independence.
Defendants were not allowed lawyers to plead their cases, had no automatic rights either to call witnesses or of appeal (these were at the discretion of the courts and the minister of Justice).
The political manipulation of the Traditional Courts is shown in the high-profile trials of in 1976 of Albert Muwalo, Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party and Focus Gwede, Head of the Police Special Branch, on a charge of attempting to assassinate President Banda, and the 1983 treason trial of Orton Chirwa, who was Minister of Justice until the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 and his wife, Vera Chirwa.
The High Court of Malawi has unlimited original jurisdiction to hear and determine any civil or criminal proceedings.
Cases before it are heard informally, and with some restrictions on legal representation, by a panel consisting of a chairperson and one representative each of employers and employees.
These have defined criminal and civil jurisdiction depending ontheir level, but expressly excluding cases of treason, murder or manslaughter.
The districts are Balaka, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Chitipa, Dedza, Dowa, Karonga, Kasungu, Likoma, Lilongwe, Machinga, Mangochi, Mchinji, Mulanje, Mwanza, Mzimba, Neno, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Nsanje, Ntcheu, Ntchisi, Phalombe, Rumphi, Salima, Thyolo, Zomba Malawi is a multi-party state system (see list of political parties in Malawi).