MCP contradictory on govt legitimacy

Main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) admits the party’s position on the legitimacy of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government is contradictory, but argued that it is forced to be in that situation.
In an interview last week, MCP publicity secretary Jessie Kabwila has said the party is “in a very contradictory position”.
The party’s stand has drawn criticism from a political analyst who accuses it of missing an opportunity through its failure to contest the poll results in court while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration says it is ready to hear MCP out on the way forward.
MCP, a party that came second in the May 20 2014 presidential elections, in many pronouncements, remains adamant that it won the elections and that President Peter Mutharika was sworn in illegitimately.
However, the party’s leadership attends almost all presidential functions that President Mutharika holds or presides over.
Since ascending to power, Mutharika, among other things, has held to official and private functions such as his wedding to Gertrude Maseko, most of which MCP president Lazarus Chakwera attends.
But Kabwila said despite Chakwera attending presidential functions and MCP recognising that DPP is now in government, the party’s position remains that DPP is in government illegitimately.
“We are in a very contradictory position. While we recognise the DPP government, we believe they are in government illegitimately. The laws of Malawi forced us to be in this situation,” she said.
Kabwila said MCP draws its position from Malawi Electoral Commission’s (MEC) admittance that the elections were marred by irregularities.
But while MEC has on several occasions admitted that the 2014 elections had a lot of irregularities, it has insisted that the problems were not profound enough to change the outcome of the elections.
“We will not stop reminding Malawians that we were the legitimate winners, but found in the opposition because of the laws of Malawi,” Kabwila said.
MCP secretary general Gustav Kaliwo backs Kabwila’s claims, saying the fact that the party has not condemned its spokesperson on her pronouncements over DPP government’s legitimacy means it agrees with her.
However, political analyst Boniface Dulani observed that the contradictory position on the recognition of DPP government borders on flip-flopping and is doing damage to the credibility of MCP than it does the legitimacy of the DPP government.
“If I were an MCP supporter, I would be confused as to whether my party has moved on from the controversy over the recent elections and we are now endorsing the legitimacy of the DPP government or whether we are still rejecting their victory and thus their claim to power.
“This is a classic case of a party that is caught between trying to project itself as a credible government-in-waiting while at the same time trying to undermine a government that was brought into office based on disputed elections,” he said in an e-mail response on Friday.
Dulani, however, said the dilemma was that governments in Malawi are highly politicised, making it difficult to distinguish between party and State functions.
“This is not helped by the fact that we have built a tradition of politicising most national events as demonstrated by the presence of party supporters at State and party events. The end result is that by attending events presided over by the DPP administration, the MCP comes out as a confused party that has no clear position,” he said.
Dulani said, in his view; “MCP lost a big opportunity to fight the legitimacy of the DPP government when it decided to discontinue their elections case, first by refusing to appeal against a High Court decision of May 30 2014 by Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda and, secondly, by refusing to challenge the results that were announced by MEC despite the concession by the electoral body itself on the existence of many flaws in the electoral process”.
“In the event that MCP had managed to secure a court ruling that questioned the veracity of the DPP victory, then they would have made a stronger case about the illegitimacy of the DPP government,” he said.
Dulani observed that by not pursuing the elections case further, MCP put itself in the current quandary.
“As much as many people share the belief that the elections were badly managed, MCP missed an opportunity to work towards revealing any electoral discrepancies and to begin to correct them. That decision, in my view, meant MCP was willing and ready to move on, even if it meant burying the obvious flaws in the elections management. Once that decision was made, they should live with it instead of the current contradictory posturing that is doing them more harm than good,” he said.
Minister of Information Kondwani Nankhumwa said DPP as a party in government was aware of MCP’s contradictory positions.
“It is really difficult to get MCP’s position. I wish the MCP leadership would make their standpoint clear. As government we are willing to sit down with them on a round-table to see how their problems would be addressed,” he said.
Twelve candidates participated in the presidential elections, but while most of them accepted defeat, only MCP questions the legitimacy of the DPP government. n