Southern Politicians and how they view Malawi- Using the North and Centre to achieve the Southern end- Prince P Guest writer
“WE WILL ALSO RULE FOR 31 YEARS” Bakili Muluzi
During his hey days, at the helm of state power, Dr. Bakili Muluzi used to say the South will also rule the country for 31 years because the Central Region led the country for 31 years under Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda and his Malawi Congress Party. He tried all the best to destroy MCP to the core in the South by among other things going personal at Gwanda Chakuamba who was the only major remnant of the MCP in the South. He used to incarcerate the leadership of MCP (Dr. H.K. Banda, Mama C.T. Kadzamira, Hon. J.Z.U. Tembo etc)
When taken aback by the unprecedented election of late Hon. Rodwell Munyenyembe to the position of speaker in 1994 and the subsequent formation of the loose alliance of MCP/AFORD in 1996, Dr. Bakili Muluzi and his UDF mooted an idea of re-demarcation of constituencies. This exercise focused mostly in the districts in the Southern Region so as to increase the number of constituencies and counter any numerical threats that would otherwise emanate from any alliance of the two opposition parties. The North had 33 constituencies, Central Region had 68 constituencies and the South had 76 constituencies in 1994. The figures increased to 34 in the North, 72 in the Centre and 87 in the South after the re-demarcation exercise. The reasons given for re-demarcation included the geographical positions, population size of the constituencies among others.
The trend however shows that most of the constituencies in the South still register less than 50,000 voters unlike most of the constituencies in the Central Region and the Northern Region as they stand of today. Examples such constituencies include;
• Karonga North West
• Mzuzu City
• Mzimba North
• Mzimba Solola
• Kasungu West
• Kasungu East
• Ntchisi South
• Dowa South
• Dowa Central
• Dowa West
• Salima Central
• Mchinji North
• Mchinji West
• Lilongwe North
• Lilongwe City West
• Lilongwe City Central
• Lilongwe North West
• Lilongwe City North
• Lilongwe South West
• Lilongwe City South East
• Lilongwe City South West
• Dedza East
• Dedza South
In the course of time, the Electoral Law was changed to allow the Chief Justice to chair the Malawi Electoral Commission. Since then we have never had fair and credible elections. We have had late Justice Hanjahanja in the 1999 elections, Justice James Kalaile in 2004 Justice Anastansia Msosa in 2009 and the most chaotic 2014 elections under Justice Maxon Mbendera as chair of MEC. All these elections were disputed and ended in the court of law, all BECAUSE the leadership has to remain in the South. It could not be wrong to conclude that only the elections organized under the government of Dr. H.K Banda were conducted credibly and professionally, the rest have been fiascos.
The only time Bakili Muluzi supported MCP was when the party went into a loose alliance with UDF in 2009 general elections. This again compelled Chakuamba who was an ardent supporter of Muluzi’s comeback on the political scene to switch allegiance to Bingu’s DPP, a fellow Southerner. Like Muluzi, Gwanda Chakuamba proclaimed that he wouldn’t want to see power shifting to the Central Region in his life time. No wonder, when Tembo got robbed of victory in 2009 general elections, Muluzi like Chakuamba, quickly congratulated Bingu and aligned himself to DPP. It is not a surprise as well that Atupele who was up against the MEC leadership during the counting process of the just ended elections quickly congratulated Peter Mutharika and now he is drafted in the cabinet. All this is aimed at retaining power in the South; there are still five years from 2019 to fulfill the desired 30 years.
Having been taken aback by the election of Hon. Richard Msowoya as the Speaker of the National Assembly from a small membership of MCP in Parliament, Prof. Peter Mutharika has already started strategizing for the 2019 elections by among other things concentrating power in the South. He has drafted 12 members of his cabinet from the South, 1 from the Central Region and 4 from the North. He has taken a bold step towards swallowing the UDF by getting Atupele Muluzi on board, after doing away with PP to reduce any stumbling blocks on the way to 2019 elections
In view of the foregoing, it is imperative for the current parliament in its life time of five years to address the following:
1. Re-demarcate the aforesaid constituencies to maximize MP vs. constituents’ interactions and propel developments in those areas. If this could be costly, then some of the constituencies in the South with less than 30,000 voters ought to be fussed to reduce on the costs. After all with a similar population Zambia has 150 MPs yet it has a large land mass as well. Why having a parliament of 193 members in our very small economy?
2. Since Chief Justices from the Supreme Court have not helped matters at the Malawi Electoral Commission, it would be proper to hire the services of competent personnel in any field who can deliver to the satisfaction of the nation as Prof. Brown Biswick Chimphamba did in the 1993 referendum. After all MEC have legal counselors
3. Change the electoral law; abandon the First Past the Post in favour of the 50+1 % majority so as to entrench genuine democracy and reduce fraud in the elections which is usually rampant in the current electoral system.
4. Debate the law that will make parties declare their sources of campaign finances to prevent ruling parties’ misuse of public resources for campaign.
I BEG TO MOVE!
During his hey days, at the helm of state power, Dr. Bakili Muluzi used to say the South will also rule the country for 31 years because the Central Region led the country for 31 years under Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda and his Malawi Congress Party. He tried all the best to destroy MCP to the core in the South by among other things going personal at Gwanda Chakuamba who was the only major remnant of the MCP in the South. He used to incarcerate the leadership of MCP (Dr. H.K. Banda, Mama C.T. Kadzamira, Hon. J.Z.U. Tembo etc)
When taken aback by the unprecedented election of late Hon. Rodwell Munyenyembe to the position of speaker in 1994 and the subsequent formation of the loose alliance of MCP/AFORD in 1996, Dr. Bakili Muluzi and his UDF mooted an idea of re-demarcation of constituencies. This exercise focused mostly in the districts in the Southern Region so as to increase the number of constituencies and counter any numerical threats that would otherwise emanate from any alliance of the two opposition parties. The North had 33 constituencies, Central Region had 68 constituencies and the South had 76 constituencies in 1994. The figures increased to 34 in the North, 72 in the Centre and 87 in the South after the re-demarcation exercise. The reasons given for re-demarcation included the geographical positions, population size of the constituencies among others.
The trend however shows that most of the constituencies in the South still register less than 50,000 voters unlike most of the constituencies in the Central Region and the Northern Region as they stand of today. Examples such constituencies include;
• Karonga North West
• Mzuzu City
• Mzimba North
• Mzimba Solola
• Kasungu West
• Kasungu East
• Ntchisi South
• Dowa South
• Dowa Central
• Dowa West
• Salima Central
• Mchinji North
• Mchinji West
• Lilongwe North
• Lilongwe City West
• Lilongwe City Central
• Lilongwe North West
• Lilongwe City North
• Lilongwe South West
• Lilongwe City South East
• Lilongwe City South West
• Dedza East
• Dedza South
In the course of time, the Electoral Law was changed to allow the Chief Justice to chair the Malawi Electoral Commission. Since then we have never had fair and credible elections. We have had late Justice Hanjahanja in the 1999 elections, Justice James Kalaile in 2004 Justice Anastansia Msosa in 2009 and the most chaotic 2014 elections under Justice Maxon Mbendera as chair of MEC. All these elections were disputed and ended in the court of law, all BECAUSE the leadership has to remain in the South. It could not be wrong to conclude that only the elections organized under the government of Dr. H.K Banda were conducted credibly and professionally, the rest have been fiascos.
The only time Bakili Muluzi supported MCP was when the party went into a loose alliance with UDF in 2009 general elections. This again compelled Chakuamba who was an ardent supporter of Muluzi’s comeback on the political scene to switch allegiance to Bingu’s DPP, a fellow Southerner. Like Muluzi, Gwanda Chakuamba proclaimed that he wouldn’t want to see power shifting to the Central Region in his life time. No wonder, when Tembo got robbed of victory in 2009 general elections, Muluzi like Chakuamba, quickly congratulated Bingu and aligned himself to DPP. It is not a surprise as well that Atupele who was up against the MEC leadership during the counting process of the just ended elections quickly congratulated Peter Mutharika and now he is drafted in the cabinet. All this is aimed at retaining power in the South; there are still five years from 2019 to fulfill the desired 30 years.
Having been taken aback by the election of Hon. Richard Msowoya as the Speaker of the National Assembly from a small membership of MCP in Parliament, Prof. Peter Mutharika has already started strategizing for the 2019 elections by among other things concentrating power in the South. He has drafted 12 members of his cabinet from the South, 1 from the Central Region and 4 from the North. He has taken a bold step towards swallowing the UDF by getting Atupele Muluzi on board, after doing away with PP to reduce any stumbling blocks on the way to 2019 elections
In view of the foregoing, it is imperative for the current parliament in its life time of five years to address the following:
1. Re-demarcate the aforesaid constituencies to maximize MP vs. constituents’ interactions and propel developments in those areas. If this could be costly, then some of the constituencies in the South with less than 30,000 voters ought to be fussed to reduce on the costs. After all with a similar population Zambia has 150 MPs yet it has a large land mass as well. Why having a parliament of 193 members in our very small economy?
2. Since Chief Justices from the Supreme Court have not helped matters at the Malawi Electoral Commission, it would be proper to hire the services of competent personnel in any field who can deliver to the satisfaction of the nation as Prof. Brown Biswick Chimphamba did in the 1993 referendum. After all MEC have legal counselors
3. Change the electoral law; abandon the First Past the Post in favour of the 50+1 % majority so as to entrench genuine democracy and reduce fraud in the elections which is usually rampant in the current electoral system.
4. Debate the law that will make parties declare their sources of campaign finances to prevent ruling parties’ misuse of public resources for campaign.
I BEG TO MOVE!
So to you these proposals are just to make sure that the leadership moves from the south to any other region?
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