Aford’s 30-year journey into the abyss

 Once upon a time, in 1994, to be exact, there was a mighty political party in Malawi called the Alliance for Democracy (Aford). Well, the party with that name still exists on the country’s Political Parties’ Register, but on the ground, 30 years on, it is more just a shadow of what it was in 1994.

Aford started as an underground pol i t i c a l movement during the Kamuzu Banda era, and later evolved to a political party during the multiparty era under the leadership of the celebrated and fearless trade union activist Chakufwa Chihana.

Here I discuss how and why the once thunderous political party which marked its history for laying the foundation for multi-party rule in Malawi, has atrophied into the minnow that it is now.

Garnering a staggering 36 parliamentary seats in the 1994 multiparty general elections, Aford now has now dwindled to a measly two seats in the 193-seat Parliament. Since then it has been a roller-coaster. downhill. From 36 seats in 1994, the party won 29 seats in 1999 elections, then six seats in 2004 and one seat in 2009, 2014 and 2019 general elections. It now has two seats in Parliament after winning a by-election in Mzimba East Constituency in 2021.

While a majority of its seats have always been won in the North, giving it the bad name that it is a Northern Region political party, in the 1994 general elections, the party grabbed seats in Kasungu and Nkhotakota districts.

Although its leaders have always preached the gospel of making it national in its look and representation, there has been zero effort to walk the talk.

Like most political parties in the country, two issues have been responsible for Aford’s attrition and slow death. The first one is the founders’ syndrome. This refers to the unwillingness on the part of the children of a political party’s founding father to relinquish the party’s leadership to other people. In a political party exhibiting the founder’s syndrome, leadership is passed on like in a dynasty, from father to son. A trait that characterizes most of the country’s political parties, the founder’s syndrome has also reduced the once ferocious United Democratic Front (UDF) to 10 members

party rules and procedures for running the party. And it is closely related to the founding fathers’ syndrome. A party that lacks intraparty democracy is run like a private estate. A typical example of lack of intra-party democracy is failure by the party to give members power to elect leaders in its various structures through democratic processes. In such parties, leaders fill vacant positions, especially in senior management, through appointment as opposed to elections. The downside of such practices is that the appointed leaders may not have the support of party members at various levels.

This is exactly what has been happening in Aford and it has just happened this past week where former Cabinet minister and political activist Timothy Mtambo was appointed the party’s vice-president from the blues. Where intraparty democracy is at work, such positions are elective. People usher you into office at an elective conference.

While some political parties such as the Malawi Congress Party would require aspirants for positions in the party’s highest policy-making decision body to have been a member of the establishment for a minimum of two years to be eligible for election, in Aford, there are no such rules. No elections. You are just catapulted into the position by the party’s leadership.

Any serious party in Malawi that desires to have a national look and seeks membership support across the country will strive to spread leadership positions across the three or more administrative regions of South, Centre, North and East.

In Malawi, a political party that is content to have both president and vice-president from the same region has no desire to become a national political bloc. In its present state Aford is one such political party. Its current leadership has no intention to make Aford mighty again.

The best and most outstanding product that Aford has given to Malawi remains Chakufwa Chihana, often called the ‘father of Malawian democracy’.