Written by Richard Kayenda
6 and 7 May, the days that Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) slated for the presentation of nomination papers on their calendar of events have now passed by. Mec officials have ticked that on the calendar as achieved. Now all eyes and ears are glued to the social distance campaign trails launched on 2 May, 2020.
Just like last year’s electoral season, the past two days were not without drama; ranging from candidates coming to the venue of the event without their running mates to coming without depositing nomination fee of K2 million. One typical Ras Chikomeni Chirwa could not afford to learn a lesson during last year’s exercise.
This time around, he still wished to trouble the commissioners and waste their piecemeal time just like that cantankerous student who comes to school everyday without a pen. And when it’s time to write an exercise, he keeps moving from one mate to another in a bid to borrow one. This candidate really tested the patience of the commissioners. Presumably, he was taking advantage of the apparent bad blood between the electoral body and the candidates.
Anyways, away with Ras Chikomeni and his shenanigans. What is probably talk of the town is the electoral alliances that our presidential aspirants have unveiled to us, the electorate. On 4 May, two days prior to the first day of presentation of nomination papers, Mec released the program for the presentation of nomination papers. The first candidate on the list was Dr Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) which is now in an alliance with UTM.
When the name, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, appeared on the Mec’s program, all and sundry became cock sure that it was he who would bear the torch of the alliance, and that Dr Saulos Chilima would trail him as a running mate. This surely did not go down well with other UTM diehards who still wished their leader to lead the alliance. Some obviously ran back to their holes with their tail between the legs in dismay.
Be what it may! But the two equal leaders have on more occasions told their followers that the alliance is not a pen of cocks where people ask which one crows louder than the other. According to them, it is a political partnership that aims at redeeming the nation from plunging into a dungeon. According to Chakwera, Chilima is not a running mate, but an equal leader who is as courageous and as visionary just like him. So, their alliance is a ‘Tonse alliance’ with similar ideologies and aspirations.
However, the success and power behind this alliance is the unity the two leaders will plant in their followers from top to bottom. Else, the two parties are more likely to divorce soon after honeymoon as they both are seemingly hungry for political leadership.
On the second day of the exercise, drama refused to exit the stage. Two candidates threw in their towels on no real account. One Phunziro Mvula said his withdrawal was as a result of his realisation that it is the same embattled commissioners together with their chairperson, Dr Jane Ansah, who will manage the 2 July polls, yet they were declared incompetent by the Public Appointment Committee of the Parliament.
Such a reason was not worth the salt. Did he mean to say all this time, he did not follow the Mec commissioners and their arrogance and contradictions? No way! Perhaps, he too just wanted to make a political name on a silver platter.
As time was fast approaching 3 o’clock in the afternoon, all eyes and ears tilted towards Sanjika Palace, where the last candidate, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, would crop up from. More interesting to Malawians was the running mate he was geared to unveil to them. Needless to say, most of them guessed educatedly that he would go for Atupere Muluzi whose party fell in political love with the once called mighty DPP on 9 March this year.
Such a guess was a right one. APM uncovered the Young Muluzi as his ally on their way to occupy Plot No 1 and 2 legitimately. Well, such is a choice! But how many of the DPP supporters are pleased with it? The majority of them are so skeptical about DPP’s survival in the event that whilst in power, something unexpected has happened. DPP will automatically go back its parent party, UDF.
That will, therefore, mean the end of it all and its eventual death. However, what is still a puzzle is APM’s choice of Atupere Muluzi. Last year, it was Everton Chimulirenji. What wrong has Chimulirenji done to not be considered again for the second citizenship?Has he already displayed gross incompetence that he is no longer palatable for his boss? Well, only the boss may have answers to these questions.
The choice of Chimulirenji last year and his betrayal a year later for the Young Muluzi may smack of a selector who is never sure of his own choices. Otherwise, if Atupere Muluzi is chosen as a ploy to canvass more votes from the UDF Supporters or form the Eastern region, then it remains to be seen because the political heat of Atupere and his UDF is simmering by the day. Enough testimony is what he faced last year in his constituency which he served for fifteen solid years. His own constituents told him through the ballot paper that his leadership fell short of their liking
