September 3 2025
Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm where we relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Peace, nothing but peace and harmony reign supreme here. And we are happy.
Villagers surrounding the Farm reminded us that there is an election coming around. And we laughed, laughed and laughed our lungs out. An election? No, we have seen better elections.
As I write, Dear Diary, the villagers are talking about eating ipomea batatas (call it sweet potato) leaves. The locals call it mtoliro. On the other hand, one of the tenants on the chitedze field keeps on saying: You have had it hot, mwakhaula eti!
You see, the whistle stop campaigns are in high gear. It appears some are taken by this notion first introduced in Malawi by Bakili Muluzi and his cronies. In 1999, Muluzi didn’t want to leave any stone unturned, as he faced Gwanda Chakuamba who was leading the MCP-Aford coalition.
So after crisscrossing the country, Muluzi embarked on a whistle-stop tour on a train from Blantyre to Nayuchi. Since then, no presidential candidate has ever thought of a campaign by train!
So you see, in their whistle-stop tours, where thoughts of mtoliro and mwakhaula are running high, we at the farm wonder why all the fuss? The expectation was that being the main opposition party, the DPP bwould offer facts of how they would run the affairs of state when they take power again.
Yet, all we are getting from the party’s torch-bearer Peter Mutharika is that Malawians have had it tough in the past five years. That is all.
Next on the DPP agenda is to castigate the UTM. For whatever reason, they have gone as far as bringing out patter that degrades women like Patricia Kaliati.
As I write, the Institute of Public Opinion and Research has released results of its recent survey, which gives Mutharika 41 percent support. That is two percentage points down from the previous survey while Chakwera has risen five points to 31 percent.
UTM’s Kabambe is at six percent, while Atupele Muluzi is pegged at three percent while Joyce Banda of the People’s Party is at two percent.
One interesting thing in the research is that the runningmate who drew the most interest among potential voters was Jane Ansah. Could that interest be as a result of how she handled that botched election in 2019.
Dear Diary, I will tell you that although Chakwera and Mutharika seem to be the hottest contenders, it is a tall order that one of them will attain 3 601 745 votes (MEC figures show that there are 7 203 490 voters). So, to get 50 percent+1 votes, one of them has to convince us, Voter Number 3 601 746 to tip the balance.
But, wait a minute, there are 17 contenders for the presidency, which makes it even harder. For one to claim outright victory, it means they have to gather the needed vote, including ours, against the total of the 16 other contenders!
Dear Diary, we will not talk about voter apathy here. Neither are we talking about the null and void votes that may push us from being Voter Number 3 601 746. All we are saying is, we will tip the balance by voting for that candidate who will not promise us development.
At the Munda wa Chitedze Farm, we have agreed not to vote for a candidate who will promise us democracy. We are fed up with promises of development and democracy.
We will vote for that leader who will tighten up the screws of public coffers’ plunder. We will only vote for that leader who will not tell us that they brought street lights when their country is importing maize, the staple food.
It beats madness to hear of an agro-based economy importing its staple food! Like it or not, we may be importing our own maize because soon after harvest we exported maize through Mchinji and Chitipa.
Dear Diary, as Voter Number 3 601 746, we will vote for that leader who will show us the reality of the Declaration of Assets. We are tired of leaders who promise development and democracy, yet allow their henchman to move from one jalopy to a stinking fleet of 84 SUVs.
Seriously, we do not want leaders who allow cronies who never had a roof at Mvera to build lakeside villas within seconds in Salima, making the rest of us non-existent in this pond!
We want nothing short of a leader who will make the lifestyle audit a reality.
We are tired of the empty promises of power over poverty. As Voter Number 3 601 746, we will not allow corruption to tear the national fibre. At the Munda wa Chitedze Farm, we would rather stay on the farm, tendering the budding chitedze, than spend hours on end in a queue to vote for leaders who care more about their pockets than the soul of the nation.
