Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm where I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Peace and only peace reigns supreme here. No malice at all.
How time flies! It seems like yesterday when we queued up to vote in the Tripartite Election, and, consequently, the Fresh Presidential Elections.
To say the least, as time is flying, it is clear that wrong doing is scarcely punished here. Look, the Constitutional Court declared the Tipexxed 2019 elections null and void. To this day, no one has been brought to book for the trampling of the people’s fundamental right to vote.
Dear Diary, the irregularities were just too much and it was all clear that some people wanted to remain in power by hook or crook.
It beats the imagination that we all let it pass just like that.
The past few weeks have been eventful as aspirants continue jostling to attain power come September 16. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) represent the two extremes under which the elections are conducted.
While the MCP has been conducting a secret ballot, it is the complete opposite in the DPP where an aspirant is blindfolded. It is a common belief among villagers surrounding the Munda wa Chitedze Farm that the DPP system is quite obsolete and unfair. Delegates are moved by sheer peer pressure to stand behind the popular candidate. They are merely ambushed by mob think.
Somewhere on the way, the United Democratic Front suspended its primaries. Is this a sign, in Bakili Muluzi lingua, that some parties are as tattered as window curtains? Here was once UDF, when comes another? The UDF primaries uses to present an intraparty democratic process, much that the competition that the winner really had to have a tough skin.
On the other hand, it is not clear if the UTM will have it’s primaries before the Malawi Electoral Commission starts collecting nomination papers from aspirants. It goes back to the popular belief that the party does not have the necessary structures on the ground. If it were a business, the party could be a shell.
Dear Diary, as I write, there are only 139 days before the elections are conducted. The drama continues unfolding.
Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu was launched over the weekend, led by Michael Usi. The launch brought a can of worms as the Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani agreed the party is not registered by the body.
Here at the farm, we are still waiting to see the courts being moved to interpret the legality of operating, functioning and carrying out themselves as a political party without registering.
For the illegal launch, who will pay the fine and face imprisonment? If you ask me, no one will.
With only about five months to go, I can’t help but look back at the past five years of promises and lies. The Tonse Alliance, through President Lazarus Chakwera’s Super High Five promised us the silver moon of prosperity but they have delivered the scorching sun of poverty.
How many roads did they promise? What about academic institutions they told us would be constructed? Is the price of fertilizer at K4950 as they told us?
They told us they would run government in a totally different manner, but look at the corruption, fraud, nepotism, cronyism and bigotry and wastage of resources in useless functions and ceremonies.
It is with that in mind, that the villagers around the Munda wa Chitedze Farm are listening more to what the politicians are not saying. Whatever they are saying can go with the wind.
