Form alliances now—experts

Make hay while the sun shines. That is the free advice from political analysts to parties in the country to start working on electoral alliances ahead of the September 16 2025 General Elections.

ln separate interviews on Monday and yesterday, political analysts Nandini Patel, George Chaima, Crispin Mphande and Wonderful Mkhutche said no  party in the country has what it takes to meet the 50 percent-plus-one requirement for winning the presidential election.

They have since advised parties that forming alliances after the first election would pose problems as parties will have to maintain their presidential candidates and running mates.

Mphande, who teaches history at Mzuzu University, said even the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), the lead partner in the governing Tonse Alliance, does not stand a chance of winning the election if it goes solo.

He said despite having newcomers from other parties, MCP cannot go beyond 43 percent of the votes; hence, it needs an alliance to increase its chances of retaining government.

Said Mphande: “Maybe if they can work hard on the ground, especially deliver on the road networks they are working on and also change or transform people’s lives, that can work. But as of now, life is very hard, so it will be very difficult for them to win if they were to go solo.”

Mphande also urged the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to embrace intraparty democracy and go the alliance route to increase its chances of bouncing back.

He said UTM Party, just like in the 2020 presidential election, is the game-changer in the next election despite the death of its founding president Saulos Chilima as it still enjoys support from the Northern Region and youths.

On her part, Patel, a political scientist who has taught at the University of Malawi and the Catholic University, advised political parties to start working on alliances so that they are able to agree on working arrangements.

She said: “Political parties need to be practical to say that we need to work out a good alliance formula considering that it is 50 percent plus one this time and they have to make it in the first round.

“No one should assume that because people are joining our party, we have numbers, we will make it alone. That may be a miscalculation.”

Chaima, on the other hand, cautioned that waiting for a re-run to form alliances will drain resources for both government and the parties.

He said MCP, which is receiving new faces into its fold, should not be cheated that it can it alone

Said Chaima:  “The 50+1 rule is a very tough rule to break and very hard mountain to climb. Forming alliances now will give parties the chance to come up with better working agreements.”

He also called on the MCP to work on weak its areas of reign such as acute shortage of food, medicine and rising prices of commodities.

In a separate interview, Mkhutche said political parties need to work on alliances so that they have time to agree on how they will run government if they  win.

“I would advise parties to work by an early bird catches the worm approach. They need to sit down and negotiate how they will do their campaign and also how they will run government in the event that they win,” he said.

Meanwhile, MCP secretary general Richard Chimwendo Banda said the party is open to alliances so long those it is going into an alliance share the ideologies of MCP.

In an interview yesterday, he said those wishing to work with MCP should want development to flourish in all sectors.

Said Chimwendo Banda: “MCP is already in an alliance although some parties pulled out of the Tonse Alliance. We have never gone solo in the history of us being MCP. We have always been together with like-minded Malawians who want to see transformation just like Dr Lazarus Chakwera is doing on the ground.”

But DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba said it is too early to be talking about alliances.

“It is an option, it is a possibility but it is too early now,” he said.

Alliance for Democracy spokesperson Annie Amatullah Maluwa said the party’s national executive committee was given mandate by delegates to work on an alliance.

She said the party will go into an alliance but its NEC is yet to decide who to partner with.

In the court-sanctioned fresh presidential election in 2020, MCP partnered UTM Party, People’s Party, Aford and other parties while DPP went into an alliance with United Democratic Front.

The pair of Chakwera and Chilima amassed 59 percent of the vote.