UDF’s Ndanga taunts UTM as ‘tiny party’ with 4 MPs

United Democratic Front (UDF) spokesman Ken Ndanga on Sunday took political banter to the mass rally for the alliance for UDF and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at Njamba Freedom Park in Blantyre when he taunted  UTM Party of vice-president Saulos Chilima as a tiny party with only four members of parliament.

UTM has four legislators in the House while Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is the main opposition party with over 50 MPs, DPP the governing party, while the UDF has 10 representatives.

In his political banter, Ndanga, who was co-director of ceremonie,  said in apparent counter to Chilima’s  style of  using  proverb as he matched him from  being witty and humorous orator, saying “Ndiwine, ndiwine anabwelako ndi ma MP 4”.

In parliament, UTM with four MPs  in the 193-member National Assembly  is not given slot to make  official response to the national budget statement or State of the Nation Address, according to Standing Order 190(1)(d),

While UDF is allowed to make formal statements.

UDF came to power in 1994 after defeating Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in 1994. It swept seats in the Southern Region and most seats in the Central Region.

During the 1999 elections, UDF won 91 seats, but the figures continued to drop in the subsequent elections when it won 49 seats in 2004 and 16 in 2009.

UTM was formed as a breakaway movement form DPP  when it  started with former first lady Callista Mutharika’s leaked WhatsApp message in April 2018 when she said Chilima would be a better candidate to lead the DPP in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections.