By Chisomo Phiri

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost )-It has emerged that Vice President Dr. Michael Usi’s polical party ‘Odya Zake Alibe Mulandu ‘ is not registered under the Political Parties Act.

According to Nation Publications Limited(NPL ), Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani confirmed that his office has not issued any certificate to ‘Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu Party’.

Tenthani said to NPL: “As far as we are concerned, we don’t have that [Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu] party. We haven’t registered them. We still have 23 registered political parties and we will update you whenever there are some changes.

“But if they [Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu] decide to apply [for party registration], we are going to treat it like any other application. So, if we will be satisfied, we will register it, and if we will not be satisfied we will not.”

Section 12 (1) of Political Parties Act states that for a political party to be registered, it should, among others, consist of not less than 100 people who are eligible to vote in each of the country’s districts.

Further, Section 12(2) of the same law requires that the application for registration be signed by the office bearers of the political party and specify the name of the party.

The application also must be accompanied by two copies of the constitution, rules and manifesto of the party and particulars of the registered party’s office.

The amended Section 12A of the Political Parties Act also requires the National Planning Commission (NPC) to issue a certificate of compliance that a political party’s manifesto is aligned to the national development agenda.

‘Odya Zake Alibe Mlandu’ started as a movement in the run up to the 2019 Tripartite Elections, but went into oblivion in February 2019 after UTM Party president and the country’s former Vice-President Saulos Chilima picked him as his running mate in the nullified presidential election.

The revival of the movement and subsequent transition into a political party comes months after Usi chickened out of the UTM Party presidential race last November while serving as interim president, having replaced Chilima who died in a military plane crash last June.