Malawi's Second Democratic Elections

Malawi's elections in 1999 were the second under the multiparty system. Six weeks after the election, a conference was held in Malawi to assess the elections; participants were from government, the political parties, the churches, NGOs, the academic community of the university of Malawi, and journalists. The seven chapters by Malawian scholars are mostly papers from the conference. They provide a critical evaluation of crucial aspects of the elections, which are treated as a litmus test for the state of democracy. The papers examine the electoral process as such, the performance of the political parties, the civil society, the media, the churches, and the use of political language.