By Christopher Jimu:
Differences between two leading parties in the Tonse Alliance, the MCP and UTM are a recipe for chaos ahead of the 2025 elections renowned political analyst Humphrey Mvula has predicted.
Mvula’s comments come hot on the heels of reported discord between supporters of the two parties as well as senior officials with its pinnacle being the jostling and shoving that took place in Blantyre last week when President Lazarus Chakwera opened the new Malawi Bureau of Standards state of the art laboratory and the trade fair.
UTM and MCP supporters exchanged blows while others were seen stripping off their party t-shirts for fear of being hassled infront of Police officers.
Mvula predicts that this is the beginning of more discord as it is apparent that the two parties are going into different directions putting into question the survival of the Tonse Alliance.
Said Mvula, ”The squabbles that took place in Blantyre in full view of the President is a recipe for disaster. This is uncalled for and very callous on the part of the perpetrators. This is a disaster because supporters of both parties think that their party is bigger than the other. I can call this as a battle for perceptions and it does not augur well for the future of the Tonse Alliance”.
According to Mvula MCP fans feel that with Chakwera at the helm they can win any election with him while UTM on the other hand know that without the alliance MCP could not have been in power.
It had to take an alliance to remove the then ruling DPP led by Peter Mutharika in the court sanctioned 2020 tripartite elections.
Mvula also feels that most supporters in the Tonse Alliance feel disillusioned because the ‘Tidye nawo syndrome’ which has been the norm since the birth of multi-partysm is now being frowned upon by Chakwera and MCP.
“I believe that apart from wanting to show that they are bigger than the other parties in the alliance, supporters are also frustrated because there are no more hand outs and easy contracts and jobs to party supporters. When the Tonse won the elections supporters felt it was their time to’eat’ but Chakwera seems to be hard to play game,” said Mvula.
Efforts to talk to MCP and UTM officials proved futile but UTM Lilongwe District Secretary Augustine Chinkwita thinks that the MCP supporters who think that they could have been in power without UTM are agents of the devil.
“It is not a secret that the MCP could not have won without Chilima. Chilima crisscrossed the country and wowed many young voters and for the MCP supporters to start sidelining us now is evil. But we take solace in the fact that there is God and he is always on the side of those being persecuted. Those MCP supporters being used by the devil should know that his mission is to steal,kill and destroy and God will judge fairly at the end of the day,” said Chinkwita.
Chakwera condemned the behaviour of the supporters on the same day saying he does not like to see supporters bickering.
The 2025 elections are expected to be fiercely contested with new alliances in the offing.
Political parties such as Aford, UDF, PP are ostensibly repositioning themselves for suitors.
