By Patrick Mwanza
“Chakwera surprises me,” says Lowani Mtonga, a Malawian voter and journalist. He isn’t the only one.
With just a week to go before Malawians head to the ballot box on September 16, President Lazarus Chakwera on September 8 delivered an evening “major address,” aiming to extinguish the blaze of public fury over shortages and sky-high prices.
That blaze has been fanned by none other than his own deputy. Vice President Michael Usi, now turned challenger, accuses the administration of letting corruption and complacency affect the country: fertilizer shortages, fuel lines never end and insiders line their pockets.
“The country shouldn’t be difficult to manage,” Usi recently told a crowd in Mchinji. “The problem is us, the politicians, who do wrong by you.”
Chakwera struck back Monday night. On fuel, he blamed sabotage at the National Oil Company and defiant suppliers blocking his government-to-government procurement model. He boasted a $13 million saving on one shipment and promised 240 tankers in the next 48 hours. Those blocking the flow, he warned, will be out of their jobs by next week.
On farm inputs, he pledged that the Affordable Inputs Program kicks off October 1. It will be K15,000 per bag for smallholders; K90,000 for commercial farmers, down from K150,000.
“Supplies are here,” he declared.
The tone was tough, but the timing? Telling. “Why didn’t he fire the saboteurs long ago?” asked Chris Teleka, a teacher on his social media account. “A good shepherd takes care of his sheep. And you want to tell me he was a pastor?”
Usi pounded the same drum at his Mchinji rally: as head of your household, telling your wife not to leave a plate on the bed is simple; so leadership ought to be, too. When instructions don’t stick, something isn’t working.
The stakes this year are higher. Victory demands more than a bare majority. Candidates must clear the 50 percent plus one threshold, a rule born from the 2019 court-ordered rerun that threw out the first count and defeated the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Peter Mutharika. That rerun elevated Chakwera and his running mate, UTM’s Saulos Chilima who died in a plane crash last June. Michael Usi, who was Chilima’s deputy in UTM, was elevated to vice president.
Today, Usi leads his own Odya Zako Alibe Mulandu party, previously a movement. Even the “mighty” MCP admits that achieving 50 percent +1 may be beyond them. The DPP, sensing opportunity, has brokered alliances with the Alliance for Democracy and the Northern Alliance. Their torchbearer, Peter Mutharika, openly says: “We want a first-round win. Malawi can’t afford another expensive runoff.”
Chakwera’s last-minute salvo might steady the ship. But what is yet to be known is whether the empty fuel pumps and the empty bellies, among other ills, will soothe the voters before pulling the lever.
