UTM moves out of alliance

UTM Party central executive committee on Friday announced that it will recommend to the national executive committee (NEC) to sever the party’s ties with the Tonse Alliance, a pact it had formed with the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in March 2020 ahead of the court-sanctioned fresh presidential election.

This decision comes just a month after a plane crash claimed the life of State Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima and eight others. Chilima was also UTM’s president.

Speaking during a press briefing at the party’s headquarters in Lilongwe’s Area 10, UTM publicity secretary general Felix Njawala announced the party’s withdrawal from the alliance citing lack of communication from other alliance partners after Chilima’s death.

Said Njawala: “Since we lost our president the late Saulos Chilima, we have been receiving calls and messages expressing concern about the future of our party. We have waited and haven’t heard anything from our partners and now the central executive committee has resolved that we should pull out of this alliance.” 

He further said that the resolution will be submitted to the party’s NEC to look into it during its meeting scheduled for July 19, 2024.

In a brief response, MCP publicity secretary Ezekiel Ching’oma said the MCP expects an official correspondence from UTM.

UTM Party secretary general Patricia Kaliati said the central executive committee meeting with Vice-President Michael Usi, who is the party’s interim president did not take place. Despite this, the committee met after receiving legal advice that it could convene without the party’s president.

The meeting was scheduled to be held at the Vice-President’s official government residence in Area 12.

In an interview Kaliati said: “Our president said he was not comfortable with the party youths who followed us to the venue carrying placards, so he suggested that we call it off.”

In a statement read out at the briefing, Njawala said Chilima would not have wished that his death should kill the values and ideals he stood for.

The statement adds that Chilima did not join the alliance out of foolishness or naivety but out of patriotism.

Njawala also urged the government to conduct an independent commission of inquiry into the plane crash saying that UTM expects to be consulted during the constitution of the commission.

Meanwhile, a political commentator George Phiri said in an interview that it was highly anticipated that the alliance would crumble as there was no transparency in the way it was governed while alliance partners were side-lined in decision-making.

Another political commentator Ernest Thindwa said: “It is not surprising that the party’s central executive committee has resolved to terminate the alliance saying the working relationship between UTM and MCP has not been the best of engagements even before the demise of SKC. It was a matter of when, and not if.”

Another commentator Humphrey Mvula wondered if UTM had taken a calculated decision.

He said: “Should they have a little more to weigh options going into the unknown future? What will happen to Vice-President Dr. [Michael] Usi, the two Cabinet ministers and what about some of their UTM colleagues in the public service? For the moment, probably we should play the wait-and-see game.”

In 2022, Chilima declared that he was next in line as the 2025 Tonse Alliance presidential candidate in keeping with the pact he and MCP president Lazarus Chakwera signed.

He pointed out that any departure from the agreement amounts to political fraud, especially on the popular will that mandated the alliance.

The late vice-president stated that Clause 2 of the agreement stipulates 11 guiding principles that include transparency, good faith, national interest, unity and togetherness, good governance, non–discrimination, mutual trust, mutual respect, integrity, consultation and consensus.

Chilima said: “That subject to the decision of the national executive committees or conventions, as the case may be, of the UTM and the Malawi Congress Party, the presidential candidate during the fresh presidential election of 23 June 2020 shall not be the presidential candidate during the immediate next election and shall cede the candidacy to the running mate in the fresh presidential election of June 23 2020.”

At the time, MCP issued a statement to the effect that it did not have in its possession any document that stipulates or points to the sharing of terms between Chakwera and Chilima.

The two leaders first met to talk about the alliance on July 7 2022 when they resolved to put their differences aside in the spirit of good governance.

But in the recent past, a growing number of senior MCP officials have endorsed Chakwera’s candidacy in the 2025 presidential elections and a few months ago Chakwera himself declared interest.