A televised presidential debate scheduled for Friday was postponed after Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera and his main rival, former president Peter Mutharika, turned down invitations to participate.

It was the second time that the two rivals had snubbed invitations for a head-to-head televised debate involving all presidential candidates.

Malawians will head to the polls on September 16 to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections that will see President Chakwera and Mutharika square off against each other for the presidency for the third consecutive time.

Each has lost once and won once in the previous contests.

Further discussions

Organisers said the TV debate set for August 29 was shifted to a yet-to-be determined date to create space for further discussions with political parties, according to a statement.

"The postponement allows the presidential debate task force to engage in productive discussions with political parties that failed to participate in the first debate," said the Media Institute of Southern Africa, who are the organisers of the presidential debate.

The head of the presidential debate taskforce, Golden Matonga said both candidates had genuine grievances that need to be heard, Malawian news outlets report.

Realistic chances

A spokesperson for Mutharika’s party said they were in favour of their candidate debating only with the president as they were the candidates with realistic chances of winning the elections, according to media reports.

The first debate was attended by three hopefuls - former president Joyce Banda of People’s Party, Dalitso Kabambe of UTM Party and United Democratic Front (UDF) president Atupele Muluzi.