By Wadza Botomani
The Joint African Union–Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (AU–COMESA) Election Observation Mission (EOM) has announced its arrival in Malawi ahead of the 16 September 2025 General Elections.
The Mission is in the country at the invitation of the Government and the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).
The delegation is led by Hailemariam Desalegn Botche, former Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, and assisted by Ambassador Ashraf Rashed, Chair of the COMESA Committee of Elders.
The AU–COMESA EOM comprises 65 short-term observers (STOs) drawn from ambassadors accredited to the AU and COMESA, officials of election management bodies, members of civil society organisations, election experts, human rights specialists, gender and media experts, and representatives of youth organisations.
According to a statement released by the Mission Secretariat, in Lilongwe, the observers come from Botswana, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The observers will be deployed across all three regions of the country, where they will monitor election day procedures, including the opening of polls, voting, closing, and counting processes at polling stations.
The statement further indicated that the AU–COMESA EOM will base its assessment on Malawi’s electoral legal framework, the OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections, the standards and obligations stipulated in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG), as well as the International Declaration of Principles (DoP) for International Election Observation, among others.
During its mission, the team will also engage with state authorities, including the Malawi Electoral Commission, political parties, the media, civil society organisations, representatives of the international community in Malawi, and other election observation missions.
The Mission is scheduled to release a Preliminary Statement of its overall findings and assessment of the conduct of the elections on 18 September 2025 at a press conference in Lilongwe.
A final and comprehensive report will follow within one month after the official announcement of the election results and will be published.
