MCP would fail because of violence if elections was held today— Survey

If there is one thing that Malawi Congress Party (MCP) does as a strength, then it is postmortem and self-assessment surveys but  its recent survey that the party carried out as they prepared for the bye-elections in Lilongwe and Kasungu has come shocking and surprising to the oldest political party in the land.

They are calling it “The October Report: Mapping the Way Forward”.

The study  set out to assess how MCP is doing after May 21 Elections with instruments primarily focused on tallying opinion from its own membership with a few sample groups of the general public.

The survey also focused on Central Region as the stronghold of the party.

The results that came out show that MCP  is suffering a very bad image because of perpetrating violence instead of building the party.

According to some respondents at district and areal levels, “it was a mistake for MCP to go about waging violence instead of rebuilding the party.”

Some respondents said MCP thought violence was going to punish DPP but it has also created suffering even among MCP members.

The survey report also says the MCP President Lazarus Chakwera has lost popularity and also lost control of the party.

Most people who were interviewed said that MCP still has a history of violence and atrocities from its time of one party rule.

Chakwera was chosen as a pastor from the church in order to change the image of violence of the party. But instead, Chakwera has proven to be a leader who torelates violence which is destroying the image of the party.

An interesting analysis came from a few district chairmen who said the main problem is that Chakwera has failed the party but he does not want to admit and doesn’t want to go. The result is that he is mobilizing violence to bring down government because he thinks can take power by force after failing two elections.

There is also another interesting perception among MCP members that Chakwera has lost control of the party and that the party is being led by  Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) and  UTM Party leader Saulos Chilima.

Respondents who were somewhat sympathetic to Chakwera said what is destroying his image is that he has allowed HRDC and Chilima to control the direction of MCP.

The conclusion of the survey indicates that MCP would fail a general election again unless it changes leadership and change its image of perpetrating violence and atrocities.

The survey was conducted by some intellectual MCP members without the knowledge of MCP executive committee because it  was also intended to examine the same leadership and its political policies.

The 92 paged survey report has not been made public.

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