Malawi Makes History: the Opposition Wins Presidential Election Rerun
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CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 4, July 2020 Page 1 Online Article Malawi Makes History: The Opposition Wins Presidential Election Rerun This piece first appeared on the author’s linked-in page June( 28, 2020) a n d has been republished here with his permission n Saturday, June 27, 2020 In the struggles for democratiza- Malawi became the first Paul Tiyambe Zeleza tion, for the “second independ- Ocountry in Africa where a Vice Chancellor ence” in the 1980s and early 1990s, presidential election rerun was won United States International Malawi’s political culture was by the opposition. On February 3, University, Kenya buoyed by the emergence of strong 2020 Malawi became the second social movements. These move- country on the continent where the ments coalesced most prominently Constitutional Court nullified the power since 2004, save for a brief around the Public Affairs Commit- presidential election of May 21, interlude. The two-year interval was tee and the Human Rights Defend- 2019 because of widespread, sys- the presidency of Joyce Banda fol- ers Coalition. Formed in 1992 as a tematic, and grave irregularities lowing the death of Bingu wa Muth- pressure group of religious com- and anomalies that compromised arika in April 2012 and the election munities and other forces, PAC the right to vote and the democratic of Peter Mutharika, the late Bingu’s became a highly respected and in- choice of citizens. The first country brother, in May 2014. fluential political actor. While PAC was Kenya where the presidential functioned as a civil interlocutor election of August 8, 2017 was an- This reflects, secondly, Malawi’s for democracy, the HRDC flexed nulled by the Supreme Court on political culture of collective na- its political muscles in organizing September 1, 2017. However, in tionalist pride that goes back to de- mass protests. Kenya the ruling party proceeded colonization. No region or ethnic to win the election rerun which group claims ownership of the in- Complementing political culture, was boycotted by the opposition. dependence struggle. The national- thirdly, is political socialization. ist movement fought on two fronts, As in much of Africa, regional Malawi’s unprecedented political against British colonialism and and ethnic political mobilization feat sprang from eight powerful against settler colonialism of the and polarization have deepened forces. First, it is a tribute to the Central African Federation of Rho- since independence as the capaci- protracted and unrelenting struggles desia and Nyasaland. Malawi was ties of the political class to deliver of its people for democratic govern- the poorest of the three colonies in the developmental and democratic ance. For a year they persevered the federation that included Zambia promises of uhuru declined and with mass demonstrations against (Northern Rhodesia) and Zimba- their appetites for primitive accu- the wanton theft of their votes de- bwe (Southern Rhodesia). It was mulation escalated. However, the spite threats and repression by the a labor reserve of Southern Africa, nationalist memories and aspira- beleaguered and discredited gov- a political economy that gave rise tions for nation-building lingered. ernment. They were sick and tired simultaneously to a regionalist and The DPP’s openly ethnocentric of the crass, corrupt, inept, and eth- nationalist outlook, a propensity to and exclusionary regime became nocentric leadership of the Demo- embrace regional developments and deeply resented. The country’s cratic Progressive Party (DPP) in forge a distinctive national path. robust media, both the traditional CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 4, July 2020 Page 2 and new social media, provided valued expression of African and The new government represents a ample space to vent against the international solidarity. The legal generational shift in several ways. intensifying regional, ethnic, and community in the country went The new president, Dr. Lazarus religious divides. on unprecedented nation-wide Chakwera, was born in the twilight demonstrations. It was an act of years of colonialism and came of Reinforcing the complex and con- political sabotage that brought ut- age after independence. All his tradictory dynamics and demands ter humiliation to the DPP leader, predecessors were products of co- of the country’s political culture Peter Mutharika, a lawyer edu- lonialism from which they inher- and political socialization was, cated at the University of London ited some of their perverted politi- fourth, the emergence of a fiercely and Yale University who taught for cal and psychological dispositions. independent judiciary that refused more than four decades in Tanza- He is also the first graduate of the to be intimidated by the executive nia, Ethiopia, and the US at Rut- country’s first university, the Uni- branch in the country’s tripartite gers University and Washington versity of Malawi, to ascend to the system of government. Not only University. It underscored the fact presidency. The first president born was the judgment of the Consti- that high levels of education and in the 1890s, received his universi- tutional Court annulling the presi- diaspora exposure in the global ty education in the US and Britain; dential election unanimous, it was North provide no immunity to the the second and fourth didn’t attend upheld by the Supreme Court on pathologies of political narcissism, university; the third and fifth also May 8, 2020 against a misguided incompetence, and idiocy. went to overseas institutions as and embarrassing appeal by the they grew up when Malawi had no DPP and Malawi Electoral Com- The strength of the opposition university. mission. In their deliberations the movement against the DPP’s klep- courts demonstrated admirable, tocratic and dynastic rule was facil- President Chakwera’s election methodical and brilliant jurispru- itated, fifth, by a generational shift may also represent the end of the dence. Most critical was the ruling in the country’s politics. Like most diaspora allure and grip over the that the winner in presidential elec- African countries, Malawi’s popu- Malawi presidency started by Dr. tions should amass over 50% of the lation is predominantly young. The Banda. President Banda returned valid votes cast. median age for the country’s 20.1 to Malawi to join the nationalist million people in 2020 is 16.5 and movement after spending 43 years At a stroke, a fatal dagger was 66.7% are below the age of 24. abroad. The Mutharika brothers struck at the heart of regional and This means the vast majority of returned to rule also after decades ethnic politics, of the DPP’s elec- the country’s population have no in the diaspora. Presidents Bakili toral shenanigans, for no party memories of Dr. Banda, the found- Muluzi (1994-2004) and Joyce could any longer win by only mo- ing president, and his dictatorial Banda (2012-2014) were home bilizing its base. The opposition regime from 1964 to 1994. What grown. So is President Chakwera parties, led by the independence they know is the ineptitude and although he did graduate studies party, the Malawi Congress Party, putrescence of the governments of in the US. The diaspora will of and the recently formed United the Mutharika brothers. course continue to play a role in Transformation Movement, quick- Malawian politics, economy and ly entered into a powerful alliance. Ravaged by poverty, unemploy- society, but I suspect no longer at The DPP also forged an alliance ment, and underemployment the the level of the presidency. with the party that had won the youth are hungry for more account- first democratic election of 1994, able and development-oriented The role of the diaspora noted the United Democratic Party, out government. They were the back- above underscores the sixth con- of which the DPP split. bone of the widespread protests that text of Malawian politics and tran- rocked the country following the sitions, namely, the impact of ex- Desperate and ill-guided efforts rigged election of May 2019. They ternal developments. It is possible by the DPP government to fire the were particularly galvanized by to argue that the Constitutional Chief Justice and his deputy a lit- the charismatic Vice President, Dr. Court was inspired by the nullifi- tle over a week before the elections Saulos Chilima, who was born nine cation of the presidential election provoked national, regional and years after Malawi’s independence. in Kenya in 2017. Earlier in the global outrage from chief justice They could not relate to the octoge- 1990s during the struggle for de- and lawyers associations as well narian and antediluvian DPP leader, mocratization, Malawi’s opposi- legal scholars and activists, a much President Mutharika, born in 1940. tion movement was invigorated CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 4, July 2020 Page 3 by the ouster of President Kaunda Thus, given Malawi’s regional ten- demic, the HRDC went to court in 1991 in neighboring Zambia tacles generated by the history of and won an injunction against the through a democratic election, as migrant labor, reinforced by the lockdown. The HRDC argued that well as the momentous demise of transport and communication net- the government had not undertaken apartheid in South Africa, the sub- works of a landlocked country, and consultations and provided meas- regional metropole of Southern Af- the thick circuits of contemporary ures to cushion the poor and most rica that from the late 19th century media, many Malawians are acute- vulnerable against the impact of drew millions of workers from the ly aware of regional developments. the lockdown. labor reserves of the region includ- They are frustrated and angered by ing Malawi. the fact that their country seems to Protests by small-scale traders, be lagging behind their southern most of them young people, de- More recently, two developments African neighbors in terms of de- manded government support in have cast their shadows on the Ma- velopment.