By Precious Nihorowa
When parties that make up the Tonse alliance, and especially the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Transformation Movement (UTM), engaged in serious talks to consider partnering to contest as a pair in the fresh presidential election following the nullification of the 2019 presidential polls, a good number of people expressed their opinions casting doubt on the possibility of an alliance between MCP and UTM. Most of these opinions were since both parties have a huge following that each of the parties would wish to ride on to usher them into State House. Even so, other commentators felt that UTM and MCP needed each other to have the certainty of winning the elections as each of them, albeit having a huge following, had some shortfalls that could easily deny them victory especially in the face of the enacted 50+1% vote majority recommendation for the winner.
Thus, the reasoning was that, while MCP has a good percentage of its supporters in the Central part of the country, UTM has also proved to be a force to reckon with as it has equally gathered supporters mostly in the Central and Northern Malawi and hence dividing the votes for MCP. UTM, however, was disadvantaged on the fact that as a party which is less than two years old on the political scene, it does not have the required structures and does not have enough Members of Parliament in the August house. And so, each of the parties needed to do some serious soul-searching and realize that they needed each other in the fight.
When the two parties finally announced that they had reached a consensus, together with more other opposition parties, to contest on a single ticket, as usual there were mixed feelings among the supporters. Some felt that the certainty of winning elections had finally been found while still others felt that such an alliance spelled an extinction of some of the parties in the alliance.
The alliance, branded Tonse, was still under public scrutiny until the day that they signed the alliance documents at Kamuzu Institute of Sports. The next issue that people were interested to know was who the torchbearer of the alliance would be between Dr Lazarus Chakwera, the leader of MCP and Dr Saulos Chilima, the leader of UTM.
To the surprise of many, and perhaps that was simply a strategy of avoiding scattering supporters at an early hour, the torchbearer was not unveiled at the ceremony and the leaders maintained that he would be announced at the proper time. People simply kept on guessing by studying how the protocol of the function was arranged as Dr Chilima spoke before Dr Chakwera symbolizing that the latter was the boss of the former.
The speculations were finally silenced when, during the presentation of presidential nomination papers to Malawi Electoral Commission, Dr Chakwera was unveiled as the torchbearer of the alliance and Dr Chilima as the running mate. Again, there were mixed reactions in the jam-packed Soche International Conference Hall in Blantyre. But what instilled a sense of hope in the Tonse alliance supporters was the speech of Dr Chakwera who branded his candidature as the ‘Chakwera-Chilima Presidency’ not just in his own name although he was singularly the recognised torchbearer.
He also promised, and repeated in subsequent public addresses, that Dr Chilima had been underutilised by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime under the leadership of Prof. Peter Mutharika, and that he, upon winning the presidency, would not make the same mistake as he described Dr Chilima as an equally competent presidential partner who could as well lead the Tonse alliance. He reinforced his remark by stating that Chilima will be a deputy president and not a vice president to give him more powers than he currently has in his capacity as state vice president.
But after the dust on the leader of the alliance has finally settled, another issue that has raised eyebrows is the seeming contradictions in the statements of Chakwera and Chilima about some crucial matters of leadership. Recently on 25th May this year, during the Tonse alliance political rally at Njamba Freedom Park in Blantyre, Chilima pointed out that when the alliance is ushered into power, he would be the Minister of Finance as well as responsible for public reforms sector. During the rally, Chakwera seemed to nod to Chilima’s remarks as he affirmed that he would use Chilima where he is well-versed as in the case of state financial management since Chilima has a background in Economics. In his speech, Chilima further said that the leadership in the alliance would be rotational and that after its current leader, he would be the next.
However, this assertion was brought into question as Chakwera seemed to change tune or simply make a clarification that as an alliance they have not yet discussed how they would share positions and responsibilities in their government.
He also said clearly that the issue of him being a one-term president had not yet been decided. He described Chilima’s utterances as simply a wish and expression of what he would be able to do to the best of his capabilities. Dr Chakwera’s remarks have since been an indication of a possible power struggle in the Tonse alliance in case of a victory in the upcoming elections. While some people have downplayed such a possibility of power struggle, and indeed they may be right, leaders of the Tonse alliance need to tread carefully on the issue of contradicting one another on sensitive issues that would easily divide voters.
While an alliance such as this cannot be free from wrangles and misunderstandings within in, if signs of the tug of war are brought in public in full view of the supporters, such may cause more harm than good. It is important that the leaders should not take such missteps for granted as most of the voters may not have the ability to analyse and read between the lines to conclude that such statements may not have meant what dominant opinions have captured.
The author likes commenting on social issues. In this article, he argues in his personal capacity.
