Malawi to hold referendum on homosexuality and equal marriage

The people of Malawi will decide not only if equal marriage should be legalised but also homosexuality itself in an upcoming referendum.

The African nation’s president, Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party, will also ask the public to vote on abortion, although it is not clear if and how the ballots will be grouped together, or when they will take place.

Murtharika told the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation: “On the issue of gay marriages, again I have said in our manifesto that we will leave that to the people.”

A Yes Equality campaign has already been mounted, and the group has told the Nyasa Times that Pride parades will take place in the hope of educating and winning over the public.

“Everyone has a right to be free from discrimination in the enjoyment of their human rights, including to marry an found a family. Love does not discriminate and neither should our laws,” they said in a statement.

Murtharika will be in power until at least 2019, so he may not be in any immediate rush to hurry through the process.

The country’s current law criminalises sex between two men, and carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison. It was briefly wiped out in 2012 when a transgender woman married her male partner and their sentence of years of hard labour sparked international outrage, but after fierce religious backlash it was quickly re-instated.

Ireland famously became the first nation to legalise marriage equality by public ballot earlier this year.