Evaluation Outcome: Bingu, DPP must go today!
By Wise One From The West
If Nyasatimes on-liners were honourable members of parliament, Professor Bingu wa Mutharika would have, by now, arrived at Ndatha Farm, his preferred retirement home. This is the verdict of the Nyasa Times sponsored Opinion poll conducted from Monday, 11 July 2011 at 21:59 CAT and closed on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 at 21:00 CAT. The poll posed one question: Is the DPP delivering on its campaign promises or not?
There were six options to pick from as below:
- Yes, Malawi under the DPP is on track
- Half-half, let us wait and watch
- No, we will see in 2014!
- No, and 2014 is too far away, I demand elections now!
- No, but there are no alternatives.
- I abstain
Participation, which was excellent given the limited time that the poll was floated, was as follows:
- 919 respondents registered,
- 62 of these, for whatever reason, did not select any of the options above, and
- 114 votes were declared null and void by the Poll Administrator because the participants, perhaps in an attempt to influence the outcome, voted more than twice.
Some of the comments made by respondents, names withheld in keeping with Nyasa Times’ tradition, are as follows:
“Bingu has messed up big time mainly because he wants to hand over leadership to his brother! Malawi is not a kingdom neither do we need dynasty:
- Freedoms are gone,
- Human rights are abused,
- Bad laws are being enacted one after another.
- He cant live with his vice presidents…he is just an impossible man to live with…
- He is arrogant, intolerant, autocratic, abusive, violating constitution at will etc…
As a result, all the trust we had for him is completely gone…He surely places his personal interests above Malawi.”
“The DPP leadership is taking Malawians for granted. This is evident when you look at the taxes imposed on goods, Bad laws enacted by just ended parliament, university stand-off, forex and fuel shortage etc.”
“The DPP Government has failed terribly and to wait for 2014 would be disastrous to Malawians. This is particularly so if the President continues to rape the constitution and continues with his dictatorship style of leadership. The Man has simply failed to run the country and surprisingly this is somebody who has gone through so many university colleges. Mutharika needs to find another Job, this one he has dismally failed.”
“The Party has not only abandoned its promises but has also incorporated policies which are not assisting Malawians and formulating laws against the wishes of its citizens. It is failing to control and manage the flow of fuel, forex and provide accurate and adequate information.”
“We need to stand up and do something……freedom never comes on a silver plate!”
“2014 is way too far. Malawi may be worse off than Zimbabwe at that time!”
“The DPP has abused the trust given to it in May 2009. It has stopped listening to the wishes & aspirations of the people and the country is witnessing retrogression in every sector- be it energy, trade performance, governance, health, education, corruption, human rights etc. One big mistake is that Bingu has axed all the performing Ministers (e.g. Goodall Gondwe), and replaced them with dunderheads like Vuwa Kaunda. You wonder what Bingu really wants to achieve! Yes bwanas will not offer any useful critique!”
Conclusion:
A survey, any survey taken 100% online and more so without a baseline, raises many questions. For Malawi it raises even more questions because despite changing the national flag as a result of “having developed beyond recognition”, Internet penetration in Malawi today in 2011 stands at 4.6% – one of the world’s lowest. http://www.gatewaycomms.com/
But nevertheless, it can safely be concluded that if the DPP today is finding it necessary to intimidate people with machete-wielding brutes, the results of this survey are not at all far off from the reality on the ground.
After all, no-one on May 19, 2009 was forced to vote under the threat of a panga knife!
*Wise One from the East
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
