As recently as March this year, there were indications that the wall of Malawi’s democracy was tumbling into something unrecognisable; something unpeaceful.

After all, Malawi is known as a peaceful country such that any act of violence, political or otherwise, is surely an affront on its reputation.

Anti-democracy tactics?

As Malawians prepare for the September 16, 2025 Local Government, Parliamentary and Presidential Elections, civil society organisations (CSOs) have been having difficulties to conduct election-related demonstrations.

It all started last year, when some CSO leaders announced that they would hold demonstrations against, first, the handling of voter and citizen registration processes by the Malawi Electoral Commission and National Registration Bureau.

However, the concerned CSOs started facing hitches when some district council officials decided to play hard ball, effectively denying CSO leaders the “right” to hold demonstrations on the pretext that the Head of State had engagements on the day of the demonstrations.

The Malawi Police Service (MPS), too, was, seemingly, playing some politics, with some of its officials not committing to would-be demonstrators’ safety by claiming that law enforcers would be engaged with other State engagements on the day of demonstrations, such that their presence would not be guaranteed.

Then, the ‘political dribbling’ took another turn. Would-be demonstrators were allowed to demonstrate, yes—only for panga-wielding men to appear and attack them right in front of MPS officers who, for all intents and purposes, are supposed to be protectors of people’s lives, livestock and property.

In March this year, some people, under the banner of Concerned Civil Servants, wanted to present a petition to Parliament as one way of expressing their discontent over a proposed salary hike. That time, parliamentarians— who probably just had their last meeting before the September elections— were meeting.

However, the marchers were stopped in their tracks by unknown people who, using pangas, hacked some of them.

Now there are concerns of possible human rights violations as some of the members of the grouping have been transferred to other workstations.

However, some of the teachers have vowed not to honour the transfers as, apparently, they smell a rat.

The decision to transfer them was made through a letter from the Local Government Service Commission, with executive secretary Edward Talota signing it.

The proposed 20 percent salary hike became effective on April 1 this year.

The Government Negotiating Team, Civil Servants Trade Union and Teachers Union of Malawi agreed on the hike after a series of talks on the matter.

The letter indicated that the Concerned Civil Servants’ leader Madalitso Banda had been transferred from Ntchisi to