Approval - Afrobarometer

The good news for Bingu is that the apporval rate for him has jumped from 56% in 2005 to 83% in 2008.

According the survey Bingu’s approval rate in terms of a wide range of social and economic indicators in  2008 is higher than that of Muluzi in 2003. The interesting exception is with respect to water provision where Muluzi comes out better. The barometer authors interpret this thus: "This is significant in the sense that in all issues, the Mutharika Government’s ratings are significantly higher. This shows that people are able to spot differences. People perceive that the Mutharika Government has not matched the borehole drilling of the Muluzi era, but that Mutharika is otherwise running a far better government than Muluzi.”. It should be noted that in the North Mutharika does better even with respect to water.

The greatest gap between Muluzi and Bingu is over the economy, corruption and crime

Term limits - Afrobarometer

Afrobarometer asked correspondents to chose the statement that is closest to their view between the following statements: 1) presidents who serve the maximum two consecutive terms should be allowed to stand for office again after sometime as long as their political parties nominate them; and 2) once a president serves the maximum of two consecutive terms, he or she should retire and never run again. ^0 percent support term limits.

Support for Presidential Term Limit or Open Term

Support for Presidential Term Limit or Open Term	Count	Percent
Support for Term Limit	717	60
Support for Open Terms	427	36
Neither	39	3
Don’t know	17	1
Total	1200	100

Source: AfBS Malawi, 2008

Northerners (70%) were strongly for term limits.

Support for Term Limit or Open Terms at the Regional Level

Support for Presidential Term Limit or Open Term	Region
	Central %	North %	South %	Total %
Support for Open Term	35	28	38	36
Support for Term Limit	61	70	58	60
Neither	2	1	5	3
Don’t Know	2	1	1	1
Total	100	100	100	100

Source: AfBS Malawi, 2008

Rotational presidency - Afrobarometer

One  question Afrobarometer asked  was what people think about rotation of the presidency along regional lines. The idea was unpopular, and very much so in the Central and Southern regional. 39 percent of Northerners, as compared to about 22 percent and 20 percent in the Central and Southern respectively, favoured rotation. Would this be an indication of the belief that a Northerner is unlikely to be elected under the present arrangement?

 

 Support for Rotational Presidency at the Regional Level

Issue	Region
	Central %	North %	South %	Total %
Support Rotational Presidency	22	39	20	23
Against Rotational Presidency	76	57	79	75
Neither	-	-	1	-
Don’t Know	2	5	1	2
Total	100	100.0	100	100

Source: AfBS Malawi, 2008

 

On educational qualifications of the leader, an overwhelming 84 percent insist that university education should be the minimum. There were significant differences along regional lines, with 95 percent of the North insisting on this minimum as compared to 85 percent and 81 percent in the central and Southern respectively,

 

Table 9: Support for University Degree Requirement for Presidential Candidates at Regional Level

Issue	Region
	Central %	North %	South %	Total %
Support for Degree Requirement	85	94	81	84
Against Degree Requirement	14	5	17	14
Neither	-	-	1	1
Don’t Know	1	1	1	1
Total	100	100	100	100

Source: AfBS Malawi, 2008

 

On Chewa - Afrobarometer

Someone recently dumped several documents of Afrobarometer on Malawi in Chingwe’s Hole. They dealt with a number of issues which I will present one by one over the coming days, depending, of course,  on how much sunlight is allotated to the Hole, given the power rationing here in Zomba.

The pleasant surprise for us here in the Hole was that across all the three regions the majority of the population  (62 percent) accepts Chewa as the country’s official language. Surprisingly, given the popular perception, there is more opposition to this in the South than in the North. This could partly be because of the fact Chewa was seen to politically replace Nyanja.

Support for Chichewa as an Official Language at Regional Level

Issue	Region
	Central %	North %	South %	Total %
Support for Chichewa as Official Language	67	59	57	62
Against Chichewa as an Official Language	30	38	42	40
Don’t Know	-	1	-	-
Neither	2	1	1	1
Total	100	100	100	100

Source: AfBS Malawi, 2008