DPP may be down, but not out: Malawi opposition must watch out!
The political weather looks pretty dark for President Peter Mutharika and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
A day before the upholding of the February 2 Constitutional Court ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the President was ruthlessly booed and mercilessly stoned in Ndirande—quite an embarrassing encounter that speaks a wane in his popularity.
Apart from upholding that the President was unduly elected and an order for fresh elections, as if putting a nail on the coffin, the Supreme Court even outlawed new entrants to vote in the coming fresh elections.
The move, according to analysts, has dealt President Mutharika and the DPP a big blow as, unconfirmed reports indicate, the party has been busy registering as many as it can, even minors, to boost their retain of office.
Certainly, as already pointed out, things appear to be falling apart for President Mutharika and the DPP; and their centre, as Chinua Achebe wrote, is failing to hold.
However, as I argue, Malawians should not make a mistake here.
The political weather might look dark for DPP today but, if you take a clear look, this is not the worst political moment for President Mutharika and the DPP to live through.
Since it’s accidental formation in 2006, the DPP has been through a series of deep political trials but none comes close as the worst ever than the death of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika in 2012.
Bingu’s death while in office was a political disaster that, in a day, watered down DPP from a ruling to the opposition benches.
That was DPP’s worst political moment and, if this party was as brittle as some think, we couldn’t have been talking of DPP today.
How APM took up the leadership mantle and re-energized the belief people had in DPP to the point of taking back power from Joyce Banda, is a political story that needs to be patiently and strategically studied for it reveals the stubborn DNA of this party.
For DPP, against all its political notoriety, is a stubborn party, shrewd at strategy and ruthless at implementation. They don’t play.
The secret behind DPP’s triumph in affliction, it’s tenacity, rests mostly in how the party quickly moves on when bruised.
When UDF, in its apparent move to micromanage government in 2006, Bingu quickly moved on, forming his own party with six MPs and lobbying more, through honest leadership, to stand with him.
When he died in 2012, APM—bruised and bleeding, soldiered on; he brought the party together, campaigned across the country with a message of hope and managed to take back power.
After ConCourt ruling, despite the appeals which to me sounded more like buying time and fooling the enemy, DPP already hit the ground, calling for people to register and vote for them.
In all this, there is one attribute that political parties, especially opposition parties, need to learn from DPP: they move on quickly, both in sadness and goodness.
Opposition parties, especially MCP and UTM, need not sit on the laurels, investing more in Christmas parties after winning the court battles.
The court battles are over. It is on the ground where the next fight is and, sorry to say, DPP is a master of this art. Opposition must up their game.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
Chakwera has a list so is Muluzi of DPP leaders to be thrown to Maula Prison. What surprises me is why UDF list is longer. Too many names on UDF list. What wrong did DPP do to Muluzi?
This analysis is based on faulty assumptions. DPP’s only strategy was to play the tribal card. That’s why it hates the 50+1 concept. This is a crude strategy, and not a stroke of genius by any stretch of the imagination. Also, that APM was able to beat JB at the polls is nothing to write home about. JB was extremely incompetent. When she was not thieving, she was on the road distributing goats!
If JB was incompetent why has the alliance architects choose to accept her in the alliance? Are they just looking at making numbers and not quality? So you can see that all they are doing is due to desperation whose outcome won’t be all that worthwhile.
I guess one of her strength was to stabilise the forex,fuel and electricity crisis in 2012 which the great failed to do.
Tribal card yes i agree. Incompetence of Jb nop i dont agree with yiu as we all know that DPP played n used the same tricks to steal votes. They have just done the same but now caught…40th Day yakwana. To say the truth, DPP cannot win a fair n credible election. It only happened during Bingu era period. The guys have made themselves aligned to Lomwe as people that are voters forgeting that Alomwe are few in this country
Wa Makala ,
I very much agree with ur observations.
However, to my little understanding , what FIKO wants to say in short is that, opposition in general, and UTMCP in particular SHUD NOT THINK THEY’RE ALREADY THERE and START UNDERRATING DPP , adzakhumudwa !!
Fiko is only advising the opposition to be well prepared to dislodge the Dpp from the seat.
If anything , Fiko is playing a part of a good adviser to the opposition.
Not this time. Dzanja lalemba kale khoma sorry. Nyekhwe basi.
Tonse alliance instead of campaining they are bxy going around Lilongwe and northern region where there are few numbers of votes. Phalombe all alone is equivalent to the whole northern region. Now they were suppose to go deeper to the southern and eastern regions to boost there support hence they are bxy AKUFUNA KUPHA INEEE NDI CHAKWERA instead of getting seriuosly into campaining. Watch out!!!
Look back at your statistics. Your stats is not correct. Last year (stolen n tippexed votes) Phalombe alone registered 167,613 which was half of what Mzimba alone did. You ur analayisis is faulty and not factual. It purely lacks substance. I think you need to reconsider going back to xul
DPP was formed and registered in 2005 and 2006 and its first MP was Goodal Gondwe who was elected through by-election in November of 2005.
APM has foolishly handed over DPP to its enemies. The question now is who will be the best executioner for DPP leaders; Muluzi or Chakwera? I feel like Chakwera may be a bit merciful but for total and merciless execution one may go for Muluzi as he said during Dumbo Lemani funeral while in tears that one day they will surely pay what they did to his friends. That time is just two months away if not less.
In a few words, apart from the landslide win of Bingu’s second term, the rest of the wins were through rigging. This time DPP is down and out.
well said brothe : election results analysis 2014 APM 1,904,399 CHAKWERA: 1,455,880 JB: 1,056,236 ATUPELE: 717,284 2019 AP: 1,904,709 CHAKWERA + PP: 1,781,740 SKC: 1,018,369 ATUPELE: 235,165 2020: Watch out all eyes on DPP. votes are not sexually transimitted as many may think that the marriage of skc and other smaller parties including jbs to chakwera will translate to automatic win. as adviced by judges that they have to unite in order to defeat DPP means that DPP is Mighty and strategic in all elections. what will prevent them this time. a wounded lion can fight for pray against a… Read more »
the same principle is true to DPP/UDf Alliance. You cant take away synergy on UTM/MCP and expect the same sysnergy to apply to DPP/UDF. whats type of reasoning is this? kuganiza mwa ucadet
From the statistics given above,one can easily interpret that the votes for APM and Atupele went down in 2019.It is interesting to note that it was a nose dive for the youngman.
It is from this trend that iam very much worried and can smell doom for the two.
Don’t talk about Eastern Region, DPP already defeated UDF MCP and UTM here so nothing more will change
(+- 235000) for Atupele