This week, UDF leader Atupele Muluzi declared what he framed as a defining moment for the party’s future.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Atupele said he had chaired a “crucial” national working committee meeting aimed at plotting the resurrection of the once-formidable ruling party into a force to reckon with, possibly by 2030.
That social media post was accompanied by images of a decently dressed and well-composed Atupele presiding over the meeting, flanked by first vice-president Rahim Elias and secretary general Genarino Lemani, alongside other national executive members.
There is, however, something almost clinical about UDF’s periodic flirtation with the word ‘renewal’. Each time this party is bruised at the ballot, it returns in that familiar tone, speaking of reconnecting with the grassroots, renewal and repositioning itself for the next election. We have travelled this road before.
Since 2005, when the party accidentally lost government to DPP—formed by Bingu wa Mutharika who dumped the yellow camp over irreparable political differences, UDF has been singing the same chorus.
At face-value, this latest declaration may read like a genuine reset, couched in the language of humility and urgency. It may also sound like an attempt to reintroduce UDF as a credible and people-centred force in a political landscape that has long since moved on. But credibility is not declared. It is earned slowly, painfully and in full view of a sceptical public that has learned to distinguish rhetoric from reform.
That is where UDF’s real test lies. In the substance of its actions, not in the elegance of its statements on social media.
Atupele further hinted at introspection, suggesting the meeting may have undertaken a candid review of the party’s electoral failures since 2009. They may well have agreed that the Malawi UDF once dominated between 1994 and 2005 no longer exists. The country moved on.
UDF must, therefore, reckon with a different Malawi—one where history alone is no longer a strategy. The grassroots base that once delivered overwhelming support, particularly in the Southern and Eastern regions, has also shifted.
These millions of voters did not disappear overnight. They drifted away steadily, and for reasons that are neither obscure nor new. Firstly, UDF showed a stubborn resistance to political and democratic change at a time when voters were demanding evolution, not preservation. Secondly, unmet campaign promises accumulated, steadily eroding trust.
And thirdly, the party must seriously interrogate why renewal initiatives like the “Agenda for Change” rarely translate into tangible international transformation.
Just a comparison with Aford’s recent resurgence under Enock Chihana is instructive. By historical standards, Aford should be weaker than UDF. Yet it has shown more political life— thanks to structured internal elections, visible mobilisation and a deliberate effort to rebuild from the grassroots up. That energy is precisely what UDF currently lacks.
If Atupele is serious about rebuilding, the prescriptions are neither new nor complicated. He must dismantle the perception that UDF is a family project by opening leadership beyond familiar circles. He must institute credible, competitive internal elections and allow genuine contestation for leadership. UDF must also replant itself in every district—from Chitipa to Nsanje, Nkhotakota to Mchinji—not as a nostalgic return to past glory, but as a sustained effort to listen, engage and rebuild trust at community level.
More fundamentally, UDF must rediscover its ideological voice. Since 2009, when Atcheya was barred from contesting the presidency, the party has drifted between alliances and personalities, leaving voters unsure of what it stands for. A party that stands for everything ultimately stands for nothing.
Equally critical is the need to tolerate internal dissent. Critics are not enemies to be silenced but voices that can sharpen direction. UDF has lost key figures since the late 1990s due to succession woes andideological differences. A party that cannot manage its own debates cannot hope to govern a nation. So, the challenge for Atupele and UDF now is simple, but demanding. They must prove, this time, to Malawians that they understand where they are coming from, and more importantly, where they are going.
