Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has decried the defection of its members to other political parties.
In an interview yesterday, DPP publicity secretary Shadric Namalomba said with about 66 days to go before the September 16 2025 General Election, losing a member is a huge loss to the party because any vote counts.
He said the party valued all its former members who have left the party, saying they would have contributed a lot to its victory.
Said Namalomba: “One member that decides to leave, that member can make an impact, because with 50+1, you need that one vote to win an election. So to that extent, I would say that any member that we lose has an impact.”
In the past few weeks, a number of senior DPP members have left the party with the latest being DPP running mate in the 2019 Tripartite Elections Everton Chimulirenji who yesterday announced that he had joined UTM Party.
Other prominent figures that have left DPP include former minister Yunus Mussa of Zomba City South Constituency and Thanda Khumbanyiwa of Nsanje Lalanje Constituency who both joined UTM.
Commenting on the matter, political analyst George Phiri said the members’ decision to quit the party is an indication that there are leadership disagreements within the party.
He said the party needs to address the differences as soon as possible before more members decide to quit the former governing party.
On his part, another political analyst Victor Chipofya observed that the switching from one political party to another is a manifestation of the country’s democracy.
He said every Malawian has a democratic right to choose which political party they want to join and that people should not question why some party members are moving from one party to another.
