By Raphael Mweninguwe
Malawians from all walks of life are on Tuesday, May 19, choosing the next president and 193 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the fourth multiparty General Elections since 1994.
There are six presidential candidates with one little known independent candidate, James Nyondo who has just joined politics. But the main contest is between the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president John Tembo and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Bingu wa Mutharika.
Former president Bakili Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF) has been barred by the Electoral Commission (EC) from standing as president on the ground that "he already served his two consecutive five-year terms since 1994 as required by Section 83 of the Constitution".
Muluzi's decision to run for the presidency was aimed at removing Mutharika from his position. In 2004 Mutharika won the presidency on the UDF ticket but he resigned from the party two months later and formed his DPP party. Muluzi and his UDF party felt cheated and went into opposition in the National Assembly for the past five years.
"I know Mutharika has agreed with the Electoral Commission to bar me from standing as president of this country. But since he has done this I am telling the nation that Mutharika will be the first president in Africa to rule for one term and lose the elections," challenged Muluzi at a political rally he organized jointly with Tembo in Lilongwe, Malawi's Capital City.
Muluzi has since formed an electoral alliance with Tembo to unseat Mutharika and the two opposition leaders are urging their supporters to vote for Tembo in the presidential race. On the seat of an MP, the parties are urging their supporters to vote for their own MPs to Parliament. UDF supporters are voting for UDF MPs so, too, is the MCP since the UDF presidency candidate, Muluzi, is not standing.
But Mutharika dismissed Muluzi's accusations saying it was the Constitution that bars his mentor from standing and not him and the EC.
With Tembo and Muluzi teaming up against Mutharika analysts say the alliance is likely to defeat the DPP "provided that the elections are free and fair and without any rigging on the part of the ruling party."
"If Mutharika is going to rule out the alliance between UDF and MCP it is doing so at its own peril," said Anthony Ngwira, a political commentator.
During the 2004 General Elections the MCP had over 60 MPs, all from the Central Region of Malawi where the party has strong support. The UDF had about 52 MPs mainly from the Southern Region of the country. While the Northern Region, which has 33 MPs distributed the seats to other political parties with the Republican Party winning about 17 seats. The Republican Party which came third in the elections in 2004 is now being headed by another presidential candidate Stanley Masauli.
Ruling DPP has never participated in any General Elections but Mutharika has campaigned heavily on the subsidy program, which is considered to have reduced hunger in Malawi. The party has in the past five years garnered support mainly from people in the cities and towns, which puts him at a disadvantage. The president said since taking office he has reduced hunger in Malawi, the economy has improved and there are "some development programs in place."
President Mutharika comes from Thyolo District in the Southern Region and Muluzi also comes from the same region but from Machinga District. The two politicians have their main support base from the South and the votes are likely to split but districts where Muluzi comes from have many people compared to the districts that supports Mutharika.
Mutharika, however, has more support in the Northern Region where the whole population combined could equal the population of just three districts in the Southern Region. There are 27 districts in Malawi with the North having only six and 12 from the Southern Region.
Since 1994 Malawians have been voting on regional lines. Voters choose their leaders from the regions where they come from. In the past three elections voters picked leaders according to their regions and if this trend will happen on Tuesday, Tembo is likely to win the presidency because in the Southern Region the votes are likely to be split between those voting for Tembo due to the alliance and Mutharika.
However, it is too early to call.
President Mutharika has admitted that it will be tough for him to sail through against Tembo. But he has told all his supporters to vote for him. He has accused Tembo of killing people during the 30-year one party rule of the MCP under former head of state the late Dr. Kamuzu Banda.
Tembo denies the allegations and he has since called on Mutharika to take him to court if he was involved in the disappearance of political opponents when MCP was power. Tembo was one of the powerful men in the MCP government and was close to the late former president.
Mutharika uses government controlled radio and TV stations for campaigning while the opposition uses private ratio stations. The opposition has been given total black out on the public radio stations but their supporters rely on private media for any information from their leaders.
All the presidential candidates are aware of what the people want: safe drinking water, quality education, food, clean energy, quality health services and many others. An estimated 60% of the 13.6 million people are living below the poverty line.
With all these people living in poverty, they now stand a chance to decide who should lead them in the next five years hoping that their poverty will end. Politicians are now kneeling down asking for people's votes but once elected into office Malawians will be forgotten again until the next voting period.
Comments