Chilima going to court: ‘They’re refusing to register UTM as a party’
United Transformation Movement (UTM) has said it will appeal at the High Court the decision by Registrar of Political Parties to refuse to register the grouping as a political party in Malawi.
UTM filed the documents with the Registrar of Political Parties on September 13 2018 but the Registrar has rejected the application because “the application is not conformity with the [Political Parties] Act in terms of Section 7 (1) as read with Section 18(a) (1) and (ii) of the Act”.
Deputy registrar of political parties, Chikumbutso Numelo, said in the application UTM officials “consciously and deliberately submitted documents which carefully omit any reference to the full name under which they have been publicly holding out as [United Transformation Movement].”
Numelo said: “The publicly known fact that UTM is not a standalone name but an abbreviation for United Transformative Movement is a relevant matter which as Registrar of Political Parties with responsibility of registering and regulating political parties I have to take into account.”
But UTM leader Saulso Chilima said in a post on his Facebook page in quick reaction to the development that they will seek court help.
“The registrar of political parties is refusing to register us as a party but we’ll not relent. We have trust in our justice system and we will ket the law take its course,” wrote the technical savy youthful politician on his Facebook page.
He said UTM activites will meanwhile continue and it is reported that they have a rally in Ndirande Township, Blantyre on Saturday.
In a statement, UTM spokesperson Joseph Chidanti-Malunga said they “vehemently disagree” with the determination of the Registrar of Political Parties on a number of reasons and that they were not given an opportunity to be heard on the matter.
Malunga said they have instructed the movement’s legal counsel to file an appeal in the High Court against the determination of the Registrar.
UTM is appealing to its members, supporters and all well wishers to “remain calm as the situation is under control.”
But the deputy registrar pointed out that the decision to present registration documents in the name of UTM and not the full name, United Transformation Movement, from which the abbreviation UTM derives was “will fully intended to mislead the Registrar of political parties for purposes of obtaining registration of the party.”
Numelo believes the scheme “to mislead” the Registrar was motivated by the knowledge of the applicants of the existence of the United Transformation Party (UTP) being a name which resembles that of United Transformation Movement – which the Registrar would have considered in registering owing to Section 7 (b) (ii) – due to its similarities.
UTP is led by Newton Kambala, a businessperson and former president of Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI), who is now in UTM and has been saying publicly that they rebranded to UTM.
The Registrar has also informed the applicants that it is an offence under Section 17 of the Political Parties Act to electioneer in connection with an election in which political parties contest unless it is a registered party.
Numelo said if UTM is not satisfied with the decision it can appeal to the High Court within 21 days.
UTP registered as political party number 50 on March 23 2016 and has been a key member of opposition political parties, primarily without parliamentary representation, that formed a coalition bloc dubbed ‘Tikonze Dziko Lathu’, to field a candidate during next year’s polls.
UTM, which started as Chilima Movement, and has been working with Wodya Zake Alibe Mlandu political grouping headed by Michael Usi, popularly known as Manganya. has maintained UTP’s red and gold colours, but changed other things such as the logo and motto.
They will hold their elective convention on November 9 2018 at a venue to be communicated later.
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BY ANY WAY UTP AND UTM ARE NOT THE SAME AND CANNOT CONFUSE PEOPLE IN ANY WAY WHAT ABOUT DPP AND PP THESE END WITH P’S BOUT PEOPLE DIFFERENTIATE AND STILL EVEN IF IT CAN BE REGISTERED AS MOVEMENT WITHOUT PARTY MAKES NO DIFFERENT COZ NOT ALL PARTIES HERE IN MALAWI END WITH PARTY LIKE UDF WE DONT SAY UNITED DEMEOCRATIC FRONT PARTY (UDFP) ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY AFORD NOT ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY PARTY AFORDP SO WHATS IS WRONG WITH UTM ONLY OR THE REGISTERER HAS BEEN PALM OILED TO BE A SABOTEGE
Umenewu ndiye ubulutu. The party was already registered by Newton Kambala as UTP. Kambala later rebranded it to UTM hence no need to register it. Congratulations the Registrar of Political Parties on your professionalism.
How about PPM?
I wonder why they have rejected to register UTM? Is it becoz it doesnt have the letter “P” in it?
Here in SA, we have ANC, DA, EFF among others, but these political parties dont have a letter “P” in them, In Zim there iz MDC of Nelson Chamisa still it was registered as aparty without letter “P” in it.
Ine yo ndi sapota wankulu diehard wa UTM 100% but registrer akunena zoona guys mwachisanzo ineyo ndi MIKE JOSUA NKHOMA ndiye ndapita kokayamba school ndingawauze aphunzisi kuti zinalanga ndine M.J.N. ndikuthera pomwepo mphuzisiyo angandilembe zosatheka but lonse full name ndiye apa palibe zopita ku court tango tambasulani zinalo ife tizakuvoteranibe ndipo muzawina koma zaku court aaaaa does not make sense at all
mwana opusayu ndi ntambwalinso etia? kkkkkk.
No wonder Gogo uja adati ichi ndiye chifwamba chenicheni.
A registrar of the party UTM and UTP are not the same and can not mislead any sane person except insane you. MDF, UDF and IDF cannot mislead as one is Malawi Defence Force, the other United Democratic Front and the remaining one Israeli Defence Force. Dont be an idiot. Your job will be at stake.
what if one comes and register his party as united transfomation movement in future while chilima has utm dont u seet that its good just to register it as it is now? what ppl must know is if it can be registered to day as UTM,it means any one can come tomorrow and register his party as united transfamation movement.its allowed becz it will be like we dont have a party to this name in our political party list.this rejection is to advantage of utm
The name of the registrar too is misleading. What does Numelo stand for or mean? He has a fake name. He should be fired. He needs to give the meaning of his name first as shown in his National ID. Does his national ID show the meaning of Numelo if not it is a fake ID.
Its not the issue of meaning but standalone of the word. Numelo is a standalone word whilst UTM is not a standalone word hence misleading. Why are they afraid of using their full name pano zavuta osamanyadila bwanji dzina lano. This shows how crooked Chilima is.
Kodi ID imawonetsa meaning ya dzina la munthu? Kodi aliyense amadziwa meaning ya dzina lake? Don’t mislead people amwene….
Kodi a Malawi why do we choose to be ignorant on things that are just simple? UTM was and is not a a party,what am trying to say is, if UTM is registered to day it means we have two parties in power, don’t forget that Chilima is the Second in Commander of the Republic, and again if his Movement will be a party, is it going to be Opposition Party? How is he going to Oppose himself? We have many Presidents in Africa who has done great things while in Government, and many of them are not Political Parties, eg, Nelson Mandela Charity, is that a Political Party? Obama care, is it a political party? UTM is just the same as Wodya Zake Alibe Mlandu, is this a Political Party? Now Malawians we are you told to vote for young men, do you want to tell me that this is the kind of men we need? Crooks? Politicians behind lies? No!!! Chilima should not run away because MCP is taking him to task come next year, he is part and parcel of this mess we have.
Kaya zanu izo.
How did Joyce Banda register her party when she was still VP ,……….Your argument is so weak
When did P.P Started? was it before Bingu died or after? if the answer is before he died then P.P followed ndondomeko pokalembetsa, because we have a history on this, why U.T.M is having a problem in the same leadership that others registered without any challenges?
She was the vice President of Malawi and she started her P.P as a Party not ngati wodya zake alibe mulandu.
Gertrude,if you can follow me properly you will understand me more than what you have raised here unless you have decided to oppose every thing, by the way if we can follow what happened with Joyce Banda then Chilima will not make it as well, because Joyce Banda did this and she failed not even near the leader but to the last!! where is she now?Therefore may your argument be followed by action, am just following your argument, because history may repeat itself.
You are clearly dull
Your argument does not hold. the issue is UTM is an abbreviation for United Transformation Movement and the applicants should have stated like that. the idea is UTM may as well mean something else
On the one hand Kaitano you have a good point where you state that will it be a party in opposition. On the other hand you probably were thinking too much that you missed one important factor. To be in opposition or government you have to at least have a member of parliament. UTM has none. Same as the many briefcase parties. Our constitution is so shallow and needs serious people to fix it. My only hope is saulos will shed these pumbwas he has on his bus and work with like minded people otherwise nayenso adzayiona bangwe.
Mukugona bwanji amwene UTM has members of parliament likes of Patricia kaliati, winiko ,msowoya list is endless
kkkkkkkkkkk…….. mebmbers of party you are talking abt, have they crossed the floor?
The party’s wish is to register it as UTM why forcing them to the name which they don’t want
UTM is united transformation Movement , a movement is not a part check in the world where we can find United Democratic movement or Malawi congress movement . This is part registration not Movement registration office
What if tommorrow another party registers as United Transformation Party and chose to use no abbreviation ‘UTM’, will that be acceptable with you/Chilima movement? Again, we have so many illiterate Malawians, will UTM and UTP not confuse them on the ballot paper? This is what the law as cited is trying to avoid. Don’t just think about today, there is tommorrow as well
Yeah! The rejection is meant to address the confusion it will cause on ballot papers. So the best thing for those members is to add one or two words to their name i.e. United National Party for Transformation Movement (UNTM) …
In my own understanding, U.T.M came as NGO not as a Political Party, if you remember Mr Chilima was looking for other Party that he can join with his Vision of draining the swamp.
The message he carried was what people were and are following because there was no Politics in that message but the truth, Everyone was waiting to hear from someone who is inside the ground, for example, People they are believing much what Mr Chilima is saying though is the same what Dr Chakwera said, the reason is because Chilima is in the same boat, we Malawians thinks he knows better what he is saying, But what Malawians should know is that Lazarus Chakwera knows very much better than Chilima.
Now the idea of making U.T.M to be a Political Party has come because the leadership thinks that the whole Malawi is behind them which by 40% can be true not because it is a Political Party but because of the message it has though already known to 99% of Malawians who follows the truth in our country.
What the Registrar is saying, there is no Politics in it because the NGO has their rules to follow as well Political Parties.
Mr Chilima should not forget that it is only one Party that can be in power for a period of 5years, now we Malawians we should not be taken for granted to be ruled by two political parties at once, i mean U.T.M and D.P.P. If Mr Chilima knew that he want to be the President of the Republic of Malawi, these are things that he was supposed to do,
He would form a Political Party, that would oppareting in the envoroment {spl} of Politics not in church.
He would form a Political Party that would be having no any problem to register it.
He would resign from where he is so that the Party he want to have should be doing things on its own. eish because of time , let me stop here.
God bless Malawi.
Koma the mk145 million and Nandolo thief APM can stand eti?
Because Chilima has been found to be deceitful in this case, it is a reason enough to bar him from standing. He is not of good character.
Malawi will be on fire! How about the Thief in Chief??? Mbava za DPP
I thought D.P.P is the father of Chilima, like Father like Son, surely Malawi will be on fire!!!!
There is already a precedent … in 1994 ….
The Registrar’s reasoning and decision, makes sense.
The said filing by UTM, was not well thought out, given the information in the public domain.
yes that very true!!!!!!! if these ppl will it as utm,it means one can come and register his political group as united transfatiom movement
UTP and UTM zikufanana pati? Nanga PP and DPP bwa
One weakness of UTM members is that they think they r special & shud be treated in a special way & differently . uku nde kuputsa. Just do what is right . osati kumangolila zilizonsenzilizonse, seeking some political sympathy from pple. Za ziiii.
Another sign of frustration and fear from DPP with their usual stupid tactics. Does DPP think using this kind of foolish tactics will win them the elections….. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Our bwana SKC is going to minch you guys up at the ballots next year.
Bravo Bwana SKC…… nothing can stop you Your Excellency nor us as we with you all the way Sir.
UTM boma 2019👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Iwe udzakhumudwa kwambiri bwanji after election chaka chamawa. Udzalakalaka kusamuka mu dziko muno ndithu, because i don’t even see UTM replacing MCP as the main opposition party in malawi.
kkkkkkkkkkkk if ppl are failling to follow simple proces of registering a political party,u think these ppl can understand these other things?
The decision by registrar is the correct one. Chilima should have swallowed pride and Just used UTP from word go. This would have been avoided.
But coz of wanting to be seen as original founder aka Big Man , you have now created an unnecessary battle . Am sure his legal Team foresaw this hitch koma paja ndinu madolo odziwa zonse.
He should have carried a research as a technocrat- he has failed here.
Madolo akuti man. Agwa nayo apa. Alimbe nazo anaziyamba okha. This is politics man Chilima sizaku corporate zija izi.
I DON’T LIKE YOUR CROOKERLY BEHAVIOR HONORABLE CHILIMA,
When we registered “The United Democratic Front” we did so to avoid the same being dubbed as a party at a time when other political parties were outlawed. Subsequently, AFORD had to be registered as an Alliance for Democracy following the same thinking. This was on advice of very competent lawyers like late Mr Chizumila, Dr Edgie Kanyongolo, Bazuka Mhango, Modercai Msiska, late Dr Matembo Mzunda, Dr Mapopa Chipeta,Dr Cassim Chilumpha, Mr Kaliyoma Phumisa and a competent lawyer from the UK. Now when we have fought for democracy and positions are handed out to nephews and nieces like at a funeral, you get stupid interpretation of the law as is happening.
KAYA MUFUNE OR MUSAFUNE, 2019 ZINTHU ZISINTHABE BASI!
Chilima has the right to register his party as UTM there is nothing wrong here.
Mr Numelo, zimeneikuchitazi ndi zibwana, Ife a Malawi tikudziwa kutizonse ndi Pumbwa yemwe akukunamiza, don’t be nepotistic here, a Malawi akufuna UTM yomweyo, osati zanyonyonyonyo zakozo, useless, idiot, bakha iwe
Osatukwana man. You need Christ!
Ndiye kuti abwana Newton Kambala aswaidwa nthawi yomweyi? Ndizimene muudanenatu pamasintha kuti mudalembetsa UTP (United Transfomation Party) mu 2015 under the leadership of Newtone Kambala. Ndiye pano mwangoisintha pang’ono kuti ikhale UTM (United Transformation Movement). Lero mukukalembetsa chipani dzina lake UTM opanda tanthauzo la lake. Registerar General akufunsani kuti mutanthauzire kuti UTM ndi chiani kapena kuti ndi mau anji? Mukukanika kunena m’malo mwake mwati mupita kukhothi. Khothi yake yomweyi yoti ikagamula zokomera anzani mumati kulibe chilingamo. Tangotanthauuzirani mauo akulembeni. Mukubisa chiyani? Simple.
Is it required by law that the name of the party should have an English meaning???????????
Ada Samuel akudziwa kuti akati UTM ikutanthauza united transformation movement, chipani chawo sichilembetsedwa chifukwa mau oti united transformation alipo kale mu chipani cha newton kambala, tsono sidzingatheke kuti movement payokha ikhale chipani cha ndale. And i thought these self imposed geniuses amadziwa zonsezi. I’m really disappointed big time. That’s why otsatira akenso ndi mbuli zokhazokha, you can tell by their comments here.
UTM is UTM. The name of the party is called UTM. Just like Samuel is Samuel. The register has to register the name he saw on the application paper not what he thinks. It is as simple as that. If the party has made a mistake on its name that is their problem not his. Too much ignorance in Malawi. The register is confused. He needs to go back to xool. Otherwise he needs to give the meaning of all names in the world for his argument to stand. We can as well name it this way Untd Trnsfrmtn Mvmnt, will he still refuse to register? We are still working on how to pronounce this. He should know that people or places can have complicated names.
Eti. It is as simple as that brother. Agwa nayo.
Akanangonena kuti UTM means Ukununkha Tiye Mmadzi
anatanthauzila kale pa logo yawo. Ndani amene sadziwa olo sanaone kuti ndi United Transformation Movement? Ndiye akufuna amupusitse registrar? osataya nthawi ya ma khoti with nonsense like this, anthu are spending years in detention without trial coz court resources are being abused like this
So you want to be called UTM Part? Or United Tranformation Mpvement Party? UTOMPA? Wow? Well I suggest United Disgruntled Party!!!
THERE ARE SOME INDIVIDUALS IN
MOTHER MALAWI WHOM WHEN
THEY SEE/HEAR THEIR FELLOW MALAWIANS SUFFERING /CRYING VERY LOUDLY — ,THEY ARE VERY VERY HAPPY —OUR GOD KNOWS THEM AND HE WILL DEAL WITH THEM ONE BY ONE
NO MATTER WHAT !!
Just do the needful, court fight will delay what u’re planning. What if u lose what are you going to do? I can’t see any problem here just rectify the error and move on. If another problem arises then we will know that there is an invisible hand. This is my simple advice.
Konzani zolakwika zanu makape. Nthawi ikutha.
Takhala tikunena ife kuti chilima and team ndi mbava ndi ma crook ngati anzawo omwe akufuna kuwatulutsa mbomawo…….koma kungoti a Malawi sititha kuyiona game patali….
A fully grown deputy registrar of parties, busy barking, barking, barking and barking some more……..for nothing!!!
This is no time to engage in semantics my dear fellow, you are setting up camp on the wrong side of history.
But court cases take a long time. Surely there should other ways. UTM mwayamba kupepera
DId UTM want to register their party as UTM? if that is that case I see no reason why they should find fault with the decision of the Register General. We all know by now the UTM standards for United Transformation Movement. You can not register your organization as an abbreviation when it has a full name. Tangochitani zomwe muyenela kukonza musayambe makani,muchedwa nazo izi
In the event that UTM is unable to register then surely they can rebrand to UTP and reconstitute the office bearers. There are so many ways of skinning a cat. Whatever the ruling of the High Court, a movement has started and the horse has already bolted and can’t be stopped. In fact UTM will only end up getting sympathy from the general public. This is a low hanging fruit publicity!!!!!
UTM has Logo look carefully Chilima i8nsert. These make distinctions
A gulukunyinda awa amaziona ngati ndi madolo. Mbuli thooooo. A chi na Winiko a chi na Kaliati angamulangize munthu za nzeru? Nanga mlamuyu anganene za nzeru mmalo motsitsa ma skirt kwa awa ovala mikanjowo.
This is where smart people tread. There are so many ways of skinning a cat Kandodo. Only the brave have unorthodox solutions.