Malawi former vice president's party pulls out of governing Tonse Alliance

Blantyre, Malawi  — A political party led by Vice President Saulos Chilima, who died in a plane crash last month, is withdrawing from the governing Tonse Alliance led by President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party. Leaders of the United Transformation Movement made the announcement Friday at a news conference at the party's headquarters in the capital, Lilongwe.

United Transformation Movement spokesperson Felix Njawala said the party believes leaving Malawi's governing Tonse Alliance is what the party's president, the late Vice President Saulos Chilima, would have done if he were alive. 

Njawala said although Chilima partnered with the Malawi Congress Party, he faced a lot of problems with the alliance, including being arrested, rebuked and sometimes ignored. 

Njawala said they have agreed today that they should pull out from the alliance.   

Njawala said the party would now shift its focus to the 2025 elections.

He asked everyone who is wishing for the good of the country, including young people, to help the party fulfill the agenda of Chilima, who he said was making Malawi a better and prosperous nation.  

"Our friends in Kenya are calling themselves Gen Z," said Njawala. "These are people who were born from 1995 and you also should not fear and get tired, but you should take part to support the UTM party, which has carried the vision of Saulos Chilima." 

Chilima and President Lazarus Chakwera signed the Tonse Alliance in 2020 to unseat then-President Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party after the Malawi court nullified the 2019 elections that Mutharika had won.  

The UTM party has become the third partner to pull out from the governing alliance, which at one time included nine political parties. 

Political analyst George Phiri is a former lecturer of political science at the University of Livingstonia in northern Malawi.  

"Looking at how this alliance has been managed or governed, one would likely think that the move that UTM has made now has been made late," said Phiri. "They would have moved out from the alliance already while the late Dr. Saulos Chilima was still the vice president of his country."  

Phiri said members of the alliance have long cried foul over the failure of the leadership to call meetings involving partners. 

"Because they were expecting to be meeting regularly in order to monitor how the alliance government was moving," said Phiri. "But seemingly it shows that the Malawi Congress Party stole the show for the alliance and didn't want these other parties to participate in decision making for the alliance government." 

Phiri said the withdrawal of UTM technically means the end of the Tonse Alliance because the agreement for the alliance was signed by leaders of two parties; UTM and MCP. 

VOA sought a comment from the MCP but has yet to receive a response.  

UTM's Secretary General Patricia Kaliati said the members of the party's executive committee are expected to endorse the decision at a meeting on July 19.