UTM, MCP and PP coalition in disarray; Meeting’ minutes exposes

 

By Nenenji Mlangeni

 

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Drama continues to rock opposition parties in the country a head of 2019 general elections following the recent political study that revealed that the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will win the polls.

 

This has prompted oppositions party including United Transformation Movement (UTM) Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and People’s Party (PP) seeking for political alliance against DPP).

 

There have been several meetings to handle the coalition that most members in these political parties are into ego, thinking that on their own will win the elections.

 

We have in possession of meeting minutes of the discussions representatives of UTM, MCP and PP had on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 in Blantyre .

 

Here is the full minutes of the  meeting that ended members angrily not agreeing to each other but drama;

 

DRAMA RAGES ON

 

The meeting started at about 3pm at St. John’s Catholic Secondary School in Lilongwe. (Another parallel meeting was taking place in Blantyre at the same time).

 

UTM members came to St. John’s to discuss a report of the executive committee on their coalition plans with MCP and PP.  But to their surprise, the hall was already full of people when the UTM entered the hall.

 

They discovered that the people they found waiting for the UTM meeting were MCP and PP members.

 

Immediately, a heated fight followed because some UTM people said MCP and PP people must stay to attend the meeting while others completely  opposed the presence of MCP and PP since the UTM meeting was an internal one.  One of the people who opposed was Winiko.

 

Andrew Kamlopa said “Let us allow them to stay. Ngati zalakwika zalakwika kale. Alakwitsa ndi akuluakulu athu powauza (a PP and MCP) kuti kuli zokambirana.”

 

As the quarrel became heated and everyone spoke on top of their voices, a watchman from the St John’s Catholic Church came and told them that he was going to call Police.

 

Then everybody sobered up because they feared that the Police were going to expose their secret talks.

 

At last, five people went aside to discuss how to handle the situation. These included Patricia Kaliati, Noel Masangwi, Loveness Gondwe and Callista Chapola. They met in a car and agreed to ask the other parties politely to leave for the UTM meeting to continue.

 

After MCP and PP left, about 66 UTM people were left to discuss how UTM can go into coalition with MCP and PP.

 

CHAKWERA, CHILIMA AND JOYCE BANDA MET

 

In the meeting, Andrew Kamlopa reported that Lazarus Chakwera, Soulos Chilima and Joyce Banda already to discuss possibility of a coalition.

 

The IPOR opinion report which predicted DPP winning created panic for coalition talks. Kamlopa said all the three were told by a Chancellor College political scientist that DPPnwas going to win and none of the three parties will win the election.

 

Chilima was advised to go into coalition with MCP. But at first Chilima said “That the last thing I am going to do. I will win this election on my own.” Chilima left for Dubai after this.

 

LETTER FROM INDIA

 

Then two things happened after Chilima came back from India.

 

First, Andrew Chapola told Chilima that Government knew everything about *Chilima’s Rigging Machine* and *rigging plan* .

 

Secondly, Chilima received a letter from Airtel India which is the headquarters of Airtel in the world.

 

CHIDANTI READS LETTER FROM INDIA

 

In the meeting, Chidanti Malunga read the Letter from India from his laptop.

 

The letter tells Chilima that it had come to the attention of Airtel Headquarters in India that Chilima was planning to rig the election by using Airtel towers, database and technical employees.

 

The letter tells Chilima that Airtel is not a political organization. The goals of Airtel are purely business. Airtel India will fire any of its employees involved in Chilima’s plan and get them arrested because *rigging is criminal.*

 

Chidanti Malunga concluded by telling the meeting that Chilima has agreed to start coalition talks with MCP and PP because his rigging plan has been discovered.

 

So far, the plan is that Chilima will stand as President of the coalition. Chakwera has accepted to be Vice President to Chilima. But Joyce Banda is refusing the position of the Second Vice President. She instead wants a new position of Prime Minister to be created in Malawi for her.

 

REACTIONS 

 

After Chidanti finished reporting, there was an immediate angry reaction from some members like Newton Kambala, Winiko and Allan Ngumuya who said a coalition between MCP and UTM is a nonstarter.

 

The meeting ended in serious disagreements and they have agreed to meet again on Saturday, 17th November.

 

Efforts to get reaction from opposition parties spokesperson proved futile as some denounced the authenticity of the alleged “UTM, MCP and PP Meeting minutes”