MCP sets alliance conditions
The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has expressed willingness to form alliances with any political party, provided that its president, Lazarus Chakwera, remains the torch-bearer.
The party’s newly-elected publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila announced this at a press briefing in Lilongwe yesterday.
The briefing also served to introduce the newly-elected national executive committee (NEC), which assumed office last week.
Kabwila emphasised that while the MCP is open to alliances, it is confident in its ability to secure a 50+1 majority if it contests the September 16 2025 General Elections alone.
She said: “If there is a party out there, whether it was with us before, is with us now, or is newly-formed, we are not blocking anyone, as long as they understand that our torch-bearer is Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, and we are committed to solving the problems of Malawians.”
But political analyst George Chaima has warned the party that it may end up regretting its decision to go solo in the elections.
Meanwhile, Chaima has indicated that any party, whether large or small, needs a strong political alliance to win elections and form the next government.
In an interview yesterday, he noted that while MCP’s conditions are sensible in terms of addressing poverty as outlined in the Malawi 2063 blueprint, the stipulation that Chakwera must be the torch-bearer is not in the best interest of a democratically formed alliance.
Chaima said: “An alliance should accommodate the wishes of all political players before the final agreement is endorsed. What if the other side wants to lead? Such an agreement may only be respected if the other party does not have ambitions to feature their leader as a candidate. This becomes an alliance of convenience.”
Chaima added that no political party in Malawi can go solo to the 2025 ballot box and form the government.
Another political analyst, Henry Chingaipe, observed that the declaration indicates a realisation that achieving a winning majority threshold is challenging in a political system where a significant portion of the electorate is affiliated with political parties based on parochial factors such as tribe and region.
Chingaipe further noted that, given MCP’s numerical strength in Parliament and local councils, and the fact that it is the ruling party, it is logical and almost natural for the party to want to be the lead partner in any alliance.
He said: “Potential partners are either much smaller than the MCP in terms of proven support base, as evidenced by their current seats in Parliament and local councils, or they are new and untested in their ability to mobilise support,
“In this announcement, the MCP is taking the risk of attracting parties without proven support while also offering a potential ride for such parties to gain relevance.”
Additionally, Kabwila mentioned that the party will soon disclose the expenses it incurred during its three-day elective convention last week in Lilongwe.
It appears no single political party is ready to go it alone, especially in the presidential race, following the interpretation of the majority by the High Court of Malawi sitting as a Constitutional Court in February 2020, which was confirmed by the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal.
The court’s interpretation effectively saw the country adopting a 50 percent-plus-one vote system, as opposed to the simple majority under the first-past-the-post system used since the first post-independence multi-party general elections in 1994.
