Chakwera rides the momentum
President Lazarus Chakwera is riding his momentum into the 2025 General Election and solidifying his grip on national politics following Malawi Congress Party (MCP) politburo’s endorsement of his candidature.
Chakwera’s latest political manoeuvring could blowout his opponents in the opposition using the power of incumbency and taking advantage of the disorganisation in competing political groupings, according to governance commentator George Chaima.
Chakwera is currently in the Northern Region where he has met traditional and block leaders and market vendors.
He is also expected to meet business executives and party loyalists.
Today, he is scheduled to court street and market vendors in Mzuzu a week after meeting similar groupings in Blantyre and Lilongwe.
In an interview, Chaima said Chakwera’s approach was generally what parties in government do to suppress those in the opposition.
He said: “Those in government stick to the agenda of suppressing minority parties and these don’t even have the breath to get out of the net. We have seen like in the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] where the leadership has weakened it.
“So, what MCP is doing is going to poach people under suffocation; hence, the migration of members. Eventually, we will have one strong party and the rest will be very weak.”
While in the Northern Region, he has also courted traditional leaders, notably Paramount Chief Kyungu of Karonga and Chitipa districts, Inkosi ya Makhosi M’Mbelwa V of the Jere Ngoni and Themba la Mathemba Chikulamayembe of the Tumbukas alongside senior chiefs and traditional authorities (T/As). In January this year, the President executed a similar charm offensive on chiefs from the Southern Region.
Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Richard Chimwendo Banda has said the President’s meeting with chiefs was a discussion of “issues affecting their communities”.
But Chaima said Chakwera’s meetings with the clergy, vendors and chiefs reflected a carefully woven strategy as the groups have influence in elections.
He said: “Chiefs and religious leaders have a strong voice that people respect. So, what the President is doing is that he doesn’t want to lose people who matter in the society as we move towards the 2025 elections.”
The President enters the general elections, to be officially launched in September this year, with the nine-member Tonse Alliance that propelled him to power, largely in tatters.
Alliance for Democracy (Aford) and Peoples Transformation Party (Petra) pulled out of the bloc last year while UTM Party led by Vice-President Saulos Chilima and other smaller groups remain ambivalent and largely on the fence regarding their status in the deal.
Mzuzu University based political analyst Chrispin Mphande said MCP still needs to build a coalition that includes other political parties because it will be tough to pull off the 50 percent plus one alone.
Public expenditure tracking and governance pundit Mavuto Bamusi said the race at this stage is a two-horse one between MCP and DPP, with the latter carrying out Blue parades to mobilise people in recent weeks ahead of the general elections launch.
“It seems it’s now a two horse-race because the other parties like UTM and UDF are just silent. This creates an impression that these others have accepted to be smaller parties and are already preparing themselves which may call upon their services into an alliance during a run-off.”
In the 2019 elections, DPP leader Peter Mutharika was declared winner with 38.57 percent of the votes after amassing 1 940 709 votes with Chakwera coming second at 35.41 percent with 1 781 740 votes.
However, in the court-sanctioned elections in 2020 when Chakwera led the Tonse Alliance, he won with 2 604 043 votes, or 59.34 percent, while Mutharika whose DPP partnered with UDF came second with 1 751 877 or 39.92 percent.
