Eight registered political parties without a single seat in Parliament have been hit with hefty fines of between K3 million and K5 million after being caught flouting the rules laid out under the Political Parties Act — including operating without proper offices and failing to keep their records up to date.

Registrar of Political Parties Dr Kizito Tenthani has now given the errant parties just 30 days to cough up and get their affairs in order — or risk being slapped with a punishing extra K500,000 for every single day they remain in breach.

The compliance sweep threw up some eyebrow-raising findings, with several parties allegedly running their operations not from proper offices, but from members’ own homes or makeshift venues instead.

Others were found to have quietly changed their leadership without bothering to tell the Registrar at all.

In total, 14 non-parliamentary parties were put under the microscope, with those penalised including the Assembly for Democracy and Development, Mbakuwaku Movement for Development, Nationalist Patriotic Party and Liberation for Economic Freedom Party.

And this could just be the beginning. The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) has confirmed the crackdown won’t stop there — inspections are now set to extend to parliamentary parties too, putting Malawi’s bigger political players firmly on notice.