JB open to coalition

• Says she doesn’t mind anyone leading alliance

Former president Joyce Banda has reiterated her wish for opposition parties to form an electoral alliance to unseat the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the May 21 Tripartite Elections.

Banda, who is also leader of opposition People’s Party, said in an exclusive interview yesterday she is willing to make sacrifices to ensure that the opposition wins the elections this year.

Her remarks come amid reports that some parties in the country were discussing possible electoral partnerships to increase their chances of winning the elections. The remarks also come after PP spokesperson Ackson Kalaile-Banda said last week the party is ready to form alliances, having held a convention.

Said Joyce Banda: “If it was possible, a coalition should have been the best option as has been the case in many countries. I, personally, don’t mind anybody leading that alliance. I really do not care who becomes president. All I want is that Malawi should have a good leader who is able to decisively deal with various problems the country is facing.”

Last year, the PP leader met Vice-President and UTM Party leader Saulos Chilima in Zomba, leading to speculation that a possible electoral alliance between PP and UTM was in the pipeline. But both parties dismissed the reports at the time.

But University of Malawi’s Chancellor College-based political commentator Ernest Thindwa in an interview said while the possibility of victory of a strong opposition alliance was guaranteed, chances of such a scenario were getting slimmer.

“Well, I would say as things are right now the opposition parties stand to benefit a lot from an electoral coalition.

“This is because the coming of UTM has made Malawi Congress Party’s [MCP] chances of winning slimmer.  But if MCP and  UTM were to unite, it would be game over [for DPP]. However, that is very unlikely since each one of them thinks they can win on their own.”

According to Thindwa, an electoral partnership between DPP and the United Democratic Front (UDF) would only be effective if MCP, UTM and PP do not work together.

Previously, MCP had confirmed that it was talking to other political parties on possible coalitions in the forthcoming elections.

However, the party’s officials later disowned the coalition talk.

A recent survey conducted by the Zomba-based Institute of Public Opinion and Research (Ipor) between August and September 2018 showed that DPP would have a slender edge over MCP if elections were held then while UTM—which was weeks old at the time of the survey—was rated third most popular ahead of this year’s elections.

Respondents to the study gave DPP 33 percent of the vote, MCP 31 percent and UTM 17 percent while PP got six percent rating.

About 6.59 million voters are expected to vote this year, with over half of the eligible voters being youths and women.