POLITICS-MALAWI: Revolt Rocks the Ruling Party

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tom Banda

BLANTYRE, Jul 31 2003 (IPS) - President Bakili Muluzi declared in April that he would not seek another term in office, and hand-picked a successor which triggered revolt within the ruling party.

Now anyone seeking to oppose his choice of a successor at the party’s convention next week faces outright humiliation and banishment. The ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) is unrelenting in its quest to purge dissident voices ahead of next year’s general elections.

Muluzi sacked three senior ministers for opposing the nomination of economist Bingu wa Mutharika and his running-mate, lawyer Cassim Chilumpha as the party’s standard bearers in next year’s general elections.

Mutharika is minister for economic planning, while Chilumpha is a former cabinet minister in Muluzi’s administration.

Critics say Muluzi’s move aims at keeping his shadow in the corridors of power when his term expires next year.

Two weeks ago the ruling party imposed conditions on all presidential aspirants. Secretary General Katenga Kaunda announced that all presidential candidates would be required to apply for registration and submit 200 signatures within 21 working days, or by Aug. 1.

While preparations for the conference were gathering pace, the only two candidates who expressed interest to contest at the convention – former cabinet ministers Moses Dossi and Joe Manduwa – have been threatened.

Top UDF officials, including Muluzi, have held public rallies across the country where they threatened and challenged the two to dare attend the convention.

"We’ll follow him (Dossi) day and night and nobody should stop us," said outspoken deputy governor for Southern Malawi, Samson Msosa at a rally addressed by Muluzi in the former Malawian capital of Zomba.

He says next week’s convention will only rubberstamp the party’s choice of Mutharika.

But Dossi insists he is not intimidated by the threats and has vowed to sweep 80 percent of the vote at the convention. He argues that he is a better and younger candidate to take UDF beyond 2004 compared to the 72-year-old Mutharika.

While Dossi has vowed to contest, his fellow aspirant Manduwa this week voluntarily withdrew from the race, leaving the former sports minister as the only rival to Mutharika.

Manduwa has cited the intimidatory registration conditions imposed by the party as reason for pulling out of the race.

"At the rate President Bakili Muluzi has been castigating the aspirants, who would dare go register? If this procedure is genuine, then Mutharika and Chilumpha should also go to register just like other presidential hopefuls," he says.

Second vice-president Chakufwa Chihana, who is also leader of the opposition Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), has declared that his party will not contest next year’s elections. He said they will support Mutharika.

In Apr., Muluzi named Chihana and four other officials from AFORD as cabinet ministers. The two parties have been working together since then.

The marriage between the two parties has sparked a debate in parliament, with legislators demanding that the Speaker invoke Section 65 of Malawi’s constitution to declare seats retain by AFORD cabinet members vacant.

The constitution states that members of political parties shall be deemed to have crossed the floor when found associating with a grouping or association whose activities are political in nature.

Speaker Davis Katsonga on Wednesday gave AFORD legislators seven days to apply for a motion to declare the seats of the AFORD cabinet ministers vacant in light of section 65 and the impending electoral partnership between AFORD and UDF.

While Attorney General Peter Fachi has stated that it is constitutional for AFORD to support UDF during the forthcoming general elections, law officers have called for amendment of the section if it is to accommodate the current electoral coalitions.

”In its present form the law is mouthful and needs to be amended. It is poisonous to our democracy,” says Charles Mhango of the Malawi Law Commission.