By Vincent Gunde
A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) diehard member from Mvera area in Dowa Rodgers Kamphangala says there is need for Malawi to return to the 1994 Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for fair and transparent elections in 2025.
Kamphangala is of view that the current Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is not ready and competent enough to preside over the 2025 elections after it failed to resolve irregularities for the Local Government Elections in Zomba and Mangochi and Parliamentary Elections in Dedza.
He observes that registration of minors to vote for candidates and handouts have been the order of the day beside having the law that says anyone found doing so is against the law.
Kamphangala gives an example of Dedza Central Constituency By-elections where an independent candidate Jacob Kaumphawi filed complaints against his competitor Willard Gwengwe who was campaigning before and during the official polling day saying all these reported irregularities were thrown under the carpet.
The MCP diehard says in all of these irregularities having undergone unresolved with MEC allowing the elections to take place, Malawians are watching this past their eyes and in 2025 will not tolerate nothing but to stand up against the new government elected.
Kamphangala says the MCP led-government is doing everything possible for it to bounce back into government but Malawians are not ready to vote for it assuring President Chakwera that he will find hard times to campaign even in Chewa dominated districts believed to be the bedroom of the MCP.
He says to make matters worse, Affordable Input Programme (AIP) has gone the opposite to the expectations of the people in the central region of Malawi that takes farming as a business expressing fears that one or three people in a village benefiting from AIP is not something to celebrate.
The MCP diehard says many people particularly the Chewa, had high expectations that the coming in of President Chakwera to lead the country from destruction by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will correct all the wrongs as done by the DPP in government.
He says the MCP has copied and pasted what the DPP was doing in government claiming that there is rampant corruption, borrowing money for consumptions, and useless international travels by the President and Ministers which have not benefited the country and its citizens.
Kamphangala has since challenged President Chakwera to take his time off vising the rural communities in Dowa district without notice and pomp, claiming that he will be told nothing but the truth that no one has in mind his name for voting in 2025.
“The people of Dowa voted for Chakwera with drums full of votes but today, Chakwera has lost popularity among his tribesmen and women one case in point is AIP implementation,” he says.
He has also advised President Chakwera that there is still time for him to win the trust of the people by firing cabinet Ministers and advisors who have made him to be a failure and apologizing to Malawians that some people surrounding him have made him to be a failure.
Kamphangala says it is not easy for a politician to accept his own mistakes but blaming others, saying Malawians know that Chakwera is not a failure but the people surrounding him are the ones making him a failure and will accept his apology.
