PP quits Tonse Alliance

What started as a bloc of nine parties is slowly turning Malawi Congress Party (MCP) into a lone wolf ahead of the 2025 elections with the People’s Party (PP) as the latest to quit the alliance.

PP president Joyce Banda made the announcement at a rally in Zomba on Sunday.

She indicated that she recently held a meeting with MCP leader President Lazarus Chakwera, who confirmed that the alliance would end after his party’s convention.

Banda’s announcement is in sharp contrast with the commitment her secretary general Ibrahim Matola, who is also Minister of Energy, made in May 2023 at a press briefing in Lilongwe to welcome Paul Maulidi back into the party.

Responding to the question of how long PP will stick with the Chakwera-led alliance, Matola said “until we are there at the bridge of the 2025 elections.”

Banda, in her widely circulated statement, suggested that the lifespan of the alliance ended with the MCP convention, a position that some of the remaining partners do not agree with.

Banda claimed: “Anatiuza kuti pokalowa ku convention yathera pati apa. Kodi convention apanga sanapange? Nde ine pofuna kusatengera za m’maluwa, ndinanyamuka kupita kumpoto kukakumana ndi a President. Ndiye ndimati ndikuuzeni kuti ife tiyenda tokha a President anavomera kuti ife nafe tiyenda tokha [They told us that if we go to the convention the alliance ends there. I had to meet the President in the North to confirm this and indeed he confirmed that MCP will go solo for now]”.

But in separate interviews, Freedom Party president Khumbo Kachali, who was Banda’s vice-president between 2012 and 2014, said the PP leader’s statement does not affect his party.

“Whatever Joyce Banda has said should not be a blanket statement for everyone because she was not given the mandate to speak on behalf of Freedom Party. We will speak on our own. Two; the agreement between Freedom Party and MCP is not the same as MCP and People’s Party. We do not know what they agreed and we are not interested to know. We have our own agreement,” he said.

Kachale further said he and three other members of the alliance met President Chakwera recently on other issues, but the status of the alliance never came up.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Mafunde leader George Nnesa, who is also spokesperson for the Tonse Alliance, said he suspects Banda was speaking for PP, which had an agreement with MCP as early as 2019.

“If it was on Tonse Alliance we would all be there to discuss the issue. The fact that it was just the two of them they may have been discussing on their own alliance of 2019,” said Nnesa.

Asked how long Mafunde will hold on to the alliance, Nnesa said there must be a meeting where partners must agree on the way forward now that parties are holding conventions.

He said he expects President Chakwera to call for the meeting and have a resolution “as a team and not as individuals”.

The PP has not responded to our questionnaire sent to both the party’s spokesperson Ackson Kalaile Banda and Matola. MCP’s new publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila asked for more time as she was attending a funeral of a party member in Kasungu.

UTM Party’s spokesperson Felix Njawala, in a written response, maintained that the decision of the party to quit the alliance stands, a position at odds with State Vice- President Michael Usi who has signalled that the party remains in the governing bloc.

We could not get the views of PPM’s leader Mark Katsonga as he did not pick up his phone.

With PP’s exit it leaves the MCP with only three partners; PPM, Freedom Party and Mafunde.

PP joins UTM, Alliance for Democracy, People’s Transformation Party and Umodzi Party, whose leader John Chisi joined MCP.

Political scientist Chikondi Chidzanja said if indeed Chakwera told Banda that the alliance ended with the convention then this was a logical position. Argued Chidzanja: “The new MCP NEC may have to make a decision on the alliance. They might endorse different partners. Between now and elections of 2025 there will be different permutations. Every alliance serves a purpose and becomes redundant and loses relevance once that purpose is achieved”.