What a convention!

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) held its elective convention in Lilongwe last week, with delegates voting out some of the party’s heavyweights.

The major shocker from the meeting held in the capital city was the fall of secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka, who led the party back to power after nearly three decades.

Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) conducted the vote in a manner some MCP supporters described as transparent.

The end result seemed acceptable to all, including the major losers in the line of Mkaka as well as Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma and his Finance counterpart Simplex Chithyola Banda.

The process was closely monitored by party officials and delegates, with no faction disputing the outcome.

For two days, the candidates, just like the delegates, were left guessing who would carry the day as the counting of votes dragged from Friday to Saturday.

In the hall was MCP president Lazarus Chakwera, who retained his top seat unopposed, strengthening his quest for re-election.

The President stayed awake all night, keeping an eye on the votes as some of the weary delegates dozed off.

From the start, Chakwera refused to endorse any candidate, taking a swipe on those who splashed the cash “as if MCP was for sale” and others who hoodwinked the voting delegates that they were his chosen ones.

The President also backed the call for free and fair competition, a belated stop to executive attempts to bar some candidates whose party membership could not be traced beyond two years.

The eve of the convention was blighted by court battles that almost led to the postponement of the decision-making meeting.

At the centre of the face-off was the party’s resolution to bar some members from contesting, a criterion nullified by the High Court in an unsolicited lecture on democracy.

“The defendant [MCP] should not treat its members who will attend the convention as if they are babies” ruled Justice Howard Pemba.

He reasoned: “The convention will be attended by adults. They should be left to decide on who their leader will be. If they feel that inexperience of a candidate or their newness in the party are disqualifying attributes, let it be to the members not to vote for such candidates. But NEC cannot impose this decision on them by culling some potential candidates out. This , I strongly believe, is not a democratic practice.”

The scathing ruling left an egg on the face of the former MCP NEC, which had not only outlived its mandate but also attempted to safeguard their positions by hook or crook.

Some MCP leaders dissatisfied with the outcome of the case appealed to the Supreme Court to stay the ruling, but this backfired spectacularly when the court suspended the convention to pave the way for the appeal.

The decision alarmed the party’s politburo, which hastily withdrew the appeal petition for the convention to continue as planned.

The postponement could have led to loss funds spent on the K1 billion indaba.

Critics blamed Chakwera for being absent throughout the court drama as he would have easily resolved as a leader if he were decisive.

However, Chakwera’s dilemma was no less tricky as going against the NEC decision could have been misconstrued as supporting some candidates over others.

As was the case during the President’s ascendency, the court ruling saved engineer Vitumbiko Mumba’s ambition to contest for the party’s vice-presidency, which he lost to Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara.

In the process, Chakwera publicly demonstrated that he had no favourites in the race, but dialled up the suppressed calls for everyone to compete so long they follow procedure.

The President agreed with the court ruling that for fresh minds to freely compete with the old guard, or those who deem themselves more deserving of the executive positions.

The Malawi leader also resoundingly chided the money politics that marred the countdown to the convention.

Among others, Chithyola and Ng’oma hogged the limelight for publicly splashing millions to delegates which Chakwera called corruption.

While the statement puts the president in positive light, it would have carried weight had he recommended or taken some action against the so-called ‘corrupt’ bunch who went against the spirit of the country’s Political Parties Act, which outlaws handouts.

It is not too late for the MCP tsar to show the world that he is truly against the money politics and send a message to moneybags politicians that the country is not lawless.

The push for transparency and accountability also includes declaring the source of the K1 billion supposedly spent on the convention.

The governing party’s failure to disclose sources of its convention funding raises suspicion, concealing a potential seedbed for corrupt funders likely to capture the country’s democracy as well as public contracts and appointments.

Despite these downsides, the candidates and delegates should be commended for allowing democracy to prevail.

By Saturday, some big losers, Ng’oma and Mumba, had gracefully conceded defeat and promised to remain loyal to the party. That is a sign of maturity.

But Chakwera has to ensure the new NEC continues to work together with the losers, who may divide the party ahead of next year’s general elections if not well managed.

That they gave the winners a good run shows that they still have something to offer the party.

These are characters MCP should keep in their fold instead of pushing them to the opposition.

For instance, Mkaka, the former party chief executive officer, may have lost the party elections, but he retains essential institutional memory as he kept Chakwera company at a defining moment.

Hi s suc ces sor Richard Chimwendo Banda has to tap vital insights from Mkaka’s well while bringing different factions together for MCP to go to next year’s polls as a united front.

Another headache for Chakwera is to strike a balance between tradition and the need to win elections.

Chakwera has twice settled for first vice-president for running mate, but will this occur in 2025?

The party has ruled out a potential alliance to maximise chances of winning over half of the votes in the decisive presidential elections, but it is too early to exclude the possibility of recruiting a running mate from another party.

While the MCP leader will have to decide, Hara has proved a powerful and determined politician over the years.

From a Cabinet minister to the sitting Speaker of Parliament, the new MCP vice-president is no pushover. Add to it the demands of women empowerment and gender equality, Chakwera, has little room to look elsewhere.