By Victoria Milanzi

 

A political analyst in the country says Malawians are the ones who will decide whether to keep the Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) or to welcome United Transformation Party (UTM) in power.

 

This comes as Malawi is five months to the 2019 Tripartite elections.

 

In an interview with this reporter a political analyst Wonderful Mkhutche said the competition between DPP and UTM is one that will best be sorted out in May 2019.

 

“DPP is a governing party and it has what most people call a regional base. UTM is building itself from the opposition ranks and it has no regional base. The competition between the two will therefore reveal if Malawi’s politics is still based on regions or not”, said Mkhutche

 

He added that the current problems facing the country ranging from persistent blackouts,, rampant corruption cannot decide whether Malawians would drop the DPP and go for UTM.

 

“If our trust in government was purely based on issues, challenges like blackouts and corruption could have made Malawians not to trust this government”, he said.

 

However, the Public opinion survey conducted by Malawi’s Institute of Public Opinion Research (IPOR) indicated that the Malawi May 21 2019 elections remains too close to call as the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is the biggest loser in the current political climate with the coming of new party UTM led by Vice President Saulos Chilima as the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is holding a “narrow lead.”

 

Commenting on the matter, Mkhutche said if the trust in government was purely based on issues, challenges like blackouts and corruption could have made Malawians not to trust this government. But who Malawians wants to govern them goes beyond that. That is the challenge. But from the recent IPOR survey which showed that, as of July 2018, Malawians could have maintained the current government in power. But this was 6 months ago. It is no longer the same.

 

Mkhutche said the coming of UTM has changed the dynamics and reality of our politics. Before UTM, the May 2019 was would have ended up as a dual contest between MCP and DPP.

 

Mkhutche has advised Political parties in the country  to reach out to Malawians with their plans when voted into power.

 

“Let us practice issue based politics”  he said.