Vice-President Michael Usi who is also UTM Party former president has been advised not be comfortable with his current status if he is to survive in politics.
In separate interviews last week in the aftermath of UTM’s elective convention where Usi did not contest, political commentators said he lacks critical support needed as the country heads towards the September 2025 General Elections.
But since Tuesday this week, the Vice-President did not respond to our request for comment on his political future.
Prior to the elective convention, Usi was briefly leader of UTM after taking over from Saulos Chilima who died in a military plane crash together with eight others at Nthungwa in Chikangawa on June 10 2024.
His reason for not contesting at the convention was allegedly to respect the wishes of UTM’s senior members.
Usi asserts that the members allegedly perceived the party would die under his leadership; hence, he decided to focus on being just a member.
While travelling to Blantyre from Lilongwe on Thursday, Usi stopped at Lunzu Trading Centre where he told people that gathered there that he could not have paid the K20 million presidential nomination fee at the convention amid people’s suffering.
He promised to use the money to buy fertiliser and seed for the elderly.
But in an interview last week, political analyst Wonderful Mkhutche said Usi has a big political decision to make.
Unlike UTM where he has now become a mere member, Mkhutche argued that Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is his best political home where he seems to have a positive attitude towards the party’s hierarchy.
He said: “He does not need to get comfortable in this position due to the glitters of the Vice-Presidency. If he wants to continue with politics, he needs political capital.
“Right now, he has none and we are moving towards elections where MCP will be looking for a running mate and they will want someone who brings in people.”
Mkhutche argued that currently, Usi has no people to support his ambitions.
Despite being a mere UTM member, purported party supporters on Tuesday showed up for Usi at the Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe where President Lazarus Chakwera presided over the 52nd Global Fund Board Meeting.
UTM spokesperson Felix Njawala told our sister paper The Nation on Friday that the party is probing the leadership of the individuals at the event.
He, however, said Usi remains an UTM member and is free to make any decision.
But Mkhutche argued that the praise he is getting from the purported UTM supporters is temporary and that with time, they will desert him.
He said the purported supporters would not be with Usi because he does not have structures. He urged Usi to find a political home where he is welcome and has the necessary backing.
“This is why the Vice-President must not be comfortable when individuals in UTM party cloth are praising him,” he said.
Similarly, another political analyst Ernest Thindwa
said Usi lacks political clout.
He said this is one of the reasons he may struggle to win a parliamentary seat regardless of where he chooses to contest.
“Political odds are sharply against him [Usi] in the prevailing electoral terrain, largely shaped by the death of Chilima, who founded the party [UTM],” said Thindwa.
After Chilima’s death, Chakwera appointed Usi as his Vice as per Section 84 of Malawi’s Constitution.
Part of the Section reads: “The President shall appoint a person to fill the vacancy in the Office of the Vice-President within seven days from the date the vacancy arose.”
While Usi is enjoying benefits as Veep, the situation was different during his five-month leadership at UTM where he often found himself at loggerheads with senior party members.
Divisions emerged within the party where one group aligned itself to Usi while another pledged its allegiance to former secretary general Patricia Kaliati.
During the UTM convention, former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor Dalitso Kabambe was elected president, swooping a majority of the votes against other contenders, namely Kaliati, Newton Kambala and Mathews Mtumbuka.
While Mtumbuka and Kambala have protested the outcome, Kaliati has remained silent.
Meanwhile, the three losers are yet to explain their political future, apart from pledging to remain UTM members.
UTM was founded by the late Chilima, first as a movement within the Democratic Progressive Party regime when the former was serving as Vice-President.
It then transitioned into a political party and was subsequently launched on July 21 2018 at Masintha Ground in Lilongwe.
Under the late Chilima’s leadership, UTM made a debut in the May 21 2019 disputed elections, scooping 1 018 369 votes, representing 20.24 votes of the total votes cast.
The party came third.
