PP all but gives up contesting in future elections

It appears that the axed ruling People’s Party (PP) has given up on ever competing in future elections.

This is the only reasonable explanation that can be gleaned from the harsh attack on voters by the party’s national governing council member Elias Wakuda Kamanga who is also spokesperson for former State president and PP leader Joyce Banda.

If not that, then we can only assume that PP is a party that is too naïve politically, its electoral battered body is swimming in a treacherous pool of denial and continues to refuse to draw lessons from its election debacle that saw it come a distant third after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP).

In an interview published in The Nation on Thursday, Kamanga accused Malawians who used to flock to the party’s rallies and benefit from its largesse of being double-faced.

“We are also wondering that when Malawians were coming to our presidential rallies in huge numbers, were they coming to watch, pass time or to please somebody. Because going by the numbers, one could see victory all over.”

Consciously or unconsciously, Kamanga has just shredded his boss’s argument that the elections were stolen, which was the basis of her now widely discredited reason for attempting to nullify the results. He is basically saying Malawians credibly voted for DPP.

On another note, if crowds alone were the chief determinant of winners in elections, then United Democratic Front’s (UDF) Atupele Muluzi would never have finished fourth-he could even have won this race. But he did not.

Yet, the charismatic young leader drew crowds everywhere he went, from every region. But, as we all know by now, those huge rallies did not deliver ballots.

Kamanga is also forgetting that political campaigns are a form of free entertainment for Malawians, especially those in rural areas. Curiosity to see a country’s president in flesh can be an irresistible pull.

The choirs that could not sing, but somehow mumbled themselves hoarse, the gologolos of the gule wa mkulu cult that performed all sorts of stunts, stand-up comedies and live music performances by the Joseph Nkasas of this world also helped to attract thousands to presidential rallies not because they liked Mrs. Banda, but rather the entertainment and the goodies she always brought along with her.

And, Mr. Kamanga, don’t forget that some of the folks who patronised the rallies were bused in from all over the region in which the events would be staged.

If PP cannot figure this out then it is not surprising that they lost the election in such embarrassing fashion. The PP may also wish to know that it is a catastrophic mistake to start blaming voters for not being impressed by you, unless you intend to fold permanently.

The simple fact is that if you cannot win over voters, it means that your messaging sucks, your campaign organisation stinks and your policy positions smell of third rate thoughts that can only beget a third position in the Malawi Electoral Commissions’ (MEC) final vote tallies. As my boss likes to say, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Let us not forget that during its time in government, the PP was out of touch with what made voters happy and what made them angry. How many times was the Banda administration warned against reckless internal and external travel and, instead of listening, they gave everyone the middle finger?

Did the party listen to the angry voices of Malawians against Cashgate and the snail’s pace at which it was dealing with the crisis? Did the then ruling party not feel the taxpayers’ wrath at how their presidential jet was sold in a mafia-type transaction to an international business group whose owners have a troubling history with despots and other African leaders with questionable governance credentials?

Did the PP really believe that losing all its three vice presidents—first Cassim Chilumpha (Centre), then Sidik Mia (South) and, less than two weeks before elections, Khumbo Kachali (North)—would not have cost the party votes?

All these three political dinosaurs were elected by PP delegates at a national convention, which means that they had some level of grassroots influence—however diminished they may have been perceived to be.

Furthermore, the departure of the Big Three brought in troubling questions regarding Mrs. Banda’s leadership credentials: What is it that the three saw in her that forced them to run for cover and whatever was left of their political lives?

If the President could not hold the rank and file of her party together, could she unite the nation for a common purpose?

But no, PP cannot ask itself these tough questions, it is too weak to face the truth neither can it differentiate between a tactic and a strategy.

For example, Mudzi Transformation Trust is not a strategy, neither is a Cow a Family nor the fertiliser loan scheme.

Indeed, promoting chiefs is not a plan for winning elections, neither are cash and maize handouts. They are a grain in a maize cob, not the cob itself.

Thus, when all the chaff is cut, PP lost because they had no grand strategy—they had grains scattered all over the place which they mistook for a cob, a strategy. The earlier PP leaves voters alone, the better if they intend to survive as an entity.