By Charles Ulaya
With the 50 plus 1 to declare a winner for the President, we all need to humble ourselves. No Party at the moment has the capacity to get that figure. Voting will remain on regional grounds. This will remain the pattern for some time.
Forming a new Party now is also not plausible as people are already glued to the existing Parties. Malawi Congress Party (MCP) remains on poll position with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)on second position. UTM while looking silent remains the match maker.
Whichever direction Saulos Chilima and his UTM party will go the Party that will partner with them will be guaranteed to win. Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) has rebranded yes but may not be a key breaker.
United Democratic Front (UDF) has loyal supporters in the Eastern Region but DPP has a big bearing. Dr. Joyce Banda’s People Party (PP) remains interesting us ‘Masteni’ has a following of loyalists who she has worked with for a long time.
DPP will split into two but that will has no bearing on voting pattern. In terms of numbers Peter Mutharika- APM if he will stand again will be number one with Chakwera 2 and Saulos 3. But no one will be able to get 50+1%.
All things being equal the outcome of Saulos case on the Constitutionality of him standing as well as his money laundering case has a strong bearing on way the 2025 elections will go. His silence should not be taken lightly it’s a strategy that once unleashed will be very difficult to stop it given the political dynamics we are going to be in.
MCP will have it tough to package a campaign message given how slow they have been to fix the economy, finalise projects and also fight corruption. However, being a ruling party they are in a better position to change things now.
On the other hand DPP is a wounded buffalo. Very difficult for its supporters to vote for MCP. It’s like a Nyasa Bullets supporter being told to support Wanderers. They wouldn’t mind supporting Silver Strikers. Let the 2025 campaign fever begin. We all need to be humble.
No clear picture yet. 2025 elections are going to be very interesting. Even we from Euthini are humbled with 2025 elections.
