Zimbabwe<\/a>, where the fee in the last elections rose to \u00a315,000, a 1,900% increase. Zimbabwe\u2019s opposition leader, Linda Tsungirirai Masarira, president of Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats, says she could not participate in the 2023 polls due to \u201cexorbitant fees\u201d.<\/p>\nMasarira says: \u201cThe notion that high nomination fees produce serious leadership is fundamentally flawed. Financial capacity is not a measure of political competence, integrity, public support or visionary leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
She does not entirely dismiss the need for fees, but says they must be reasonable, and warns that the current amount narrows the political field, making it harder for women and young people to participate, discourages independent and smaller party candidates, and consolidates power among already resourced political actors.<\/p>\nZimbabwe\u2019s opposition leader, Linda Tsungirirai Masarira, president of Labour Economists and Afrikan Democrats.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Linda Masarira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMotlapele Raleru, executive director of the Botswana-based Centre for Democracy and Electoral Awareness, says rising fees do \u201cmore harm than good\u201d. They may reduce the number of candidates, she says, but it does not improve the quality of choices left behind. Worse, it \u201creduces [candidacy] to a commercial transaction, not a civic right\u201d.<\/p>\n
In practice, says Raleru, high fees become a \u201csystematic wealth test\u201d that privileges affluent political actors, shrinks voter choice and \u201cputs democracy at stake\u201d, effectively \u201con sale to the highest bidder\u201d.<\/p>\n
Malawi offers a different kind of warning. There, the presidential nomination fee rose to about \u00a34,200 for the September 2025 election, from about \u00a3800 five years earlier. The theory was simple: raise the price to attract only \u201cserious\u201d contenders. Yet the ballot expanded from seven candidates in the previous election to 17. Some candidates reportedly entered late and without a known political history.<\/p>\n
Malawian political science professor Nandini Patel does not rule out the possibility that powerful actors financed \u201cproxies\u201d to split votes and confuse opponents, meaning a high fee could still produce a crowded race but not necessarily a more credible one. She fears that an increase in nomination fees \u201cmay inspire corruption\u201d and that the current \u201chorrendous\u201d fee level could block capable candidates.<\/p>\nElection workers check names at a polling station in Blantyre, Malawi, 16 Sept 2025. Nomination fee rose to about \u00a34,200 in the country last year.<\/span> Photograph: Thoko Chikondi\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMilward Tobias, an independent presidential candidate in Malawi\u2019s 2025 elections, rejects the idea that money measures seriousness. \u201cPolitical competition is too heavy a sacrifice to be measured by nomination fee,\u201d he says. In his view, some aspirants failed to run not because they lacked conviction, but because they were priced out.<\/p>\n
While Patel suspects collusion behind the bloated ballot, Tobias argues that it \u201cwas a protest statement\u201d, driven by public frustration with the leadership style. He insists that leadership is driven by belief, not bank balance.<\/p>\nPolitical scientist Michael Wahman, at the University of Michigan in the US, has researched the cost of elections in Malawi and Zambia. He points out that nomination fees are only a fragment of the massive costs candidates incur in many African elections. As in the US, where presidential campaign costs run into the billions, he says the sums involved make elections a dangerous breeding ground for corruption.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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