MCP endorses Chakwera for 2025

After months of concealing its position, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has declared President Lazarus Chakwera as its 2025 presidential election torch-bearer.

MCP spokesperson Ezekiel Ching’oma said in an interview that the party’s national executive committee (NEC) and other party members have expressed the wish to have Chakwera as the presidential candidate in 2025 saying the convention to be held next year will endorse him.

But spokesperson of the party’s faction calling itself ‘Concerned MCP Members’ Alex Major, a former Kasungu West legislator, said in an interview on Tuesday that the mandate of the current NEC ends on May 18 this year after which a national convention will choose the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

He said: “MCP does not belong to an individual, and no one will impose himself or herself on the party. As we speak, the issue of who will represent MCP in the next presidential election is not known. It is only the convention that has powers to decide who will represent MCP in the election.”

This is the first time MCP has endorsed Chakwera as its presidential candidate after several senior members of the party, in their individual capacities, recommended him to be the party’s torch-bearer in the 2025 presidential poll.

Said Ching’oma: “As NEC, we sat down and agreed that we should hold the convention next year, and not this year. The spirit behind the provision of a five-year term is to have a convention a year before the general elections and that is the reason we will have the convention next year.

“Once NEC meets, we will decide on the dates and venue for the convention.”

But Ching’oma avoided commenting on the nine-member Tonse Alliance and the perceived agreement made with the leadership of the grouping’s second biggest party, UTM.

“This has nothing to do with the alliance. I am talking as MCP spokesperson and be assured that our presidential candidate in 2025 will be Chakwera. Take my word, which is that of the MCP, we are not relenting.

“As of now I cannot say whether we will have an alliance or not in 2025, but I am speaking as MCP. Should there be an agreement with other political parties to go into an alliance as it usually happens during elections, the parties involved will talk about that, but I am talking as MCP spokesperson.”

A political analyst has described the party’s sanctioning of Chakwera as a recipe for reinforcement of pessimistic politics that will potentially undermine the legitimacy of political authority and institutions.

In July last year, UTM Party leader, who is also the country’s Vice-President Saulos Chilima, opened a Pandora’s box after disclosing some finer details of an agreement between him and Chakwera, which were kept under wraps for over two years.

According to Chilima, the agreement signed prior to the June 23 2020 fresh presidential, among others, stipulates that Chakwera would serve for one term only.

Chilima said in the agreement, which was signed in the presence of some stakeholders including faith-based organisations, they settled that 2025 would be his turn to represent the alliance in 2025.

But Chakwera has not commented on Chilima’s remarks, neither has he said anything on his 2025 presidential bid.

Asked for his party’s comment on MCP’s latest position, UTM Party spokesperson Felix Njawala said he could not comment on what is happening in MCP.

In an earlier interview, the party, through its former spokesperson Frank Mwenifumbo, also said it would not be commenting on Chakwera’s endorsements because they were MCP matters.

However, University of Malawi political and administrative studies lecturer Gift Sambo observed that MCP’s move does not augur well with the spirit that governed the party and UTM Party pre-electoral arrangements.

Ideally, he said, it was anticipated that the parties to the alliance would embrace and be committed towards a collective approach in their dealings.

“However, this is not the spirit that governs alliances in African politics. It appears political expediency outweighs ethics.

“The declaration in question reinforces the sceptical view of party politics in Malawi that these political organisations remain internally deficient in terms of democracy despite the country embracing a new political dispensation,” explained Sambo.

He further observed that MCP seemed not to be “disentangled yet from oligarchic tendencies”.

“The party has more work to do to ensure that the rank and file members are empowered to participate in decision-making processes that steer the future of the party,” he said.

Another political and social commentator Victor Chipofya Junior faulted MCP for the move, saying it defeats intra-party democracy.

Said Chipofya: “I believe MCP has a constitution and that constitution says that within every five years they are supposed to hold a national convention where they should chose a leader who is going to be their torch-bearer in the next general elections and for the party to say its stand is that Chakwera is the one who is going to be the torch-bearer then why does the party have a constitution stipulating they will have a national convention every five years to elect a president as a torch-bearer?

But Ching’oma said the party would not block any active MCP member aspiring to challenge Chakwera at the convention.

“Any MCP family member is at liberty and, in fact, constitutionally mandated to contest at the convention. That is what democracy entails. But do you truly think Dr Chakwera can fall?” he asked.

The MCP constitution demands that the party’s national executive committee shall be elected by the national convention and will stay in office for five years, except for the president who shall hold such office for two terms only if elected for a second-term.

Reads article 35 (1): “Members of the national executive committee, except the regional chairpersons, shall be elected by the party convention and shall hold office for five (5) years.”

President Chakwera was first elected in 2013, then re-elected in 2018, meaning that his tenure expires next month.

But in the case of Chakwera, he is saved by Article 31 (4) of the party constitution, which stipulates, notwithstanding being limited to two terms only he is eligible to contest for an additional term following his election as State President during his second-term in the party.

Since May last year, Chakwera has picked up a string of endorsements from some of his party’s senior leaders including Cabinet ministers as well as district chairpersons, especially from the Northern and Central regions. The party’s second vice-president Harry Mkandawire was the first to make the declaration followed by Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani-Hara and Lilongwe Msinja North legislator Bintony Kutsaira.

However, the party which is the Tonse Alliance’s main partner, has all along said members were free to express their individual choices without stating its position.

The relation between MCP and UTM Party has been sour since members of the former started declaring Chakwera as the 2025 presidential candidate.

In July 2022, the two parties resolved to put their differences aside and work together to strengthen their partnerships as well as democracy although very little had been seen since then.