‘DPP is broken’

 Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leadership says cracks in the party are widening and theirs is a broken system requiring an overhaul if they are to be serious contenders in the 2025 Tripartite Elections.

The party’s administrative secretary Francis Mphepo said this in response to our questionnaire on the precarious situation in the party which has resulted in divisions.

He put the blame on Leader of Opposition Kondwani Namkhumwa, who he accused of disrespecting the party’s

president Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM) to the extent that he does not attend caucuses the party’s leader calls when their lawmakers are going to Parliament.

Mphepo said: “We do have caucuses of the party members of Parliament [MPs] chaired by our president where the Leader of Opposition is supposed to attend to advance DPP beliefs on economy, health, agriculture, education, among others.

“In Parliament too, the Leader of Opposition is supposed to call, in consultation with the president, and chair caucuses. However, with the indiscipline and disloyalty of the current Leader of the Opposition, such is not the case.”

He said Nankhumwa acts on his own, adding he does respect authority, including the party’s president.

“The incumbent Leader of Opposition is in that office because of an injunction he obtained from the court. He was fired and relieved of his position by the party because of the same and similar acts of indiscipline and disloyalty.

“He is there on his own. Ask him whose views he is advancing in the National Assembly. Those views are not of the party,” Mphepo said.

The DPP administrative secretary said the party was not 

fighting Nankhumwa or anyone, arguing that it is the Leader of Opposition who fights everyone who he believes stands in his way to the DPP presidency.

“But what he [Nankhumwa] must know is that leaders are ordained by God not by man. Because of this setback, our party which is a major party in opposition, is weakened; we can’t speak with one voice providing checks and balances to the current government. Actually, we are opposing ourselves. Too sad,” Mphepo regretted.

He said DPP leadership was in agreement with views by some members of the public that with the continued infighting, losers are Malawians because they cannot be properly represented in Parliament owing to the divisions in the party.

Nankhumwa did not respond to a questionnaire sent to him through WhatsApp to respond to accusations raised by Mphepo.

DPP regional governor for the South, Charles Mchacha said there was need to quickly find ways to put the party’s house in order.

He said people must strive to earn leadership and not force people to put them in positions.

But a political scientist Vincent Kondowe, said DPP is a government in waiting and its mandate must be recast from the perspective of Section 12 on the Constitution of the need for  an open, accountable, and transparent government.

He said: “Through reverse political engineering, for such values to be reinforced, we need a robust opposition working together to provide meaningful and substantive checks and balances to the Executive arm of government.

“This requires that the DPP operate as one significant whole pulling in the same direction demanding accountability in the way the executive uses its power, executing public policies and expenditures being incurred.”

A governance expert, Makhumbo Munthali feared there would be conflicting views within the same DPP in Parliament.

He said the beneficiary of DPP divisions is the Tonse administration because DPP would not be able to provide checks and balances.

“DPP cannot speak with one voice and cannot advance a collective agenda as a party. There may be some MPs loyal to Nankhumwa, others to the party president,” he said.

Infighting started in DPP before the polls but deep divisions came to light in August 2020 when the party’s secretary general Greselder Jeffrey told The Nation that Mutharika had done his part and that there was need for new leadership.

Mutharika took over leadership of the party after the death of his brother Bingu Wa Mutharika in April 2012, propelling the party to victory in the 2014 Tripartite Elections.