Chapter 4 Making, Unmaking and Remaking Political Party Coalitions
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POLITICAL PARTY COALITIONS IN MALAWI 111 4 MAKING, UNMAKING AND REMAKING POLITICAL PARTY COALITIONS IN MALAWI Explaining the Prevalence of Office-Seeking Behaviour DENIS KADIMA AND SAMSON LEMBANI INTRODUCTION The contemporary history of political alliances in Malawi dates back to the early 1990s when Malawian political and social groupings joined forces and succeeded in voting out the 30-year-old one-party regime of Kamuzu Banda in 1994. While a recent unpublished study by Lars Svåsand, Nixon Khembo and Lise Rakner (2004) gives an account of the reconfiguration of Malawi’s party system after the 2004 general elections, there is no chronological and comprehensive account of the main coalitions of political parties in the country, their accomplishments and setbacks and the lessons that can be drawn from their experience. This explains the need for this study as well as the unique contribution that it makes to the field of party coalition politics. The study deals only with alliances made up of political parties. For this reason, the pre-1994 election alliance of various political pressure groups, faith-based organisations and non-governmental organisations, which worked towards the effective introduction of a democratic multiparty system, is not given significant attention. The study devotes equal attention to the history of both governing and opposition coalitions in Malawi. Specifically, it examines the short-lived coalition between the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) after the 1994 general elections; the 1995 alliance between the United Democratic Front (UDF) and AFORD; the alliance forged between the MCP and AFORD prior to the 1999 general elections; the UDF- AFORD-NCD Coalition preceding the 2004 general elections and the 111 112 THE POLITICS OF PARTY COALITIONS IN AFRICA Mgwirizano coalition of 2004. It also makes cursory observations about other opposition and government alliances that existed in the same period. The making, unmaking and remaking of political party coalitions has been a recurrent characteristic of Malawi politics. Like the other chapters in this book, the Malawi chapter sheds light on some of the questions raised by this aspect of the political process by studying the objectives, functioning and survival of party coalitions in the country. The study is divided into six sections, an introduction and a conclusion. The first section gives the historical background to the emergence of political parties in Malawi, their ideologies, the weight of ethnic politics, resignations and defections. The second gives an overview of political coalitions and intra-party and inter-party developments. The constitutional, legal and administrative framework governing political party coalitions is covered in the third section. The fourth describes the formation of party coalitions, including issues such as the choice of coalition partners, the driving forces behind alliances, the selection of candidates and the allocation of important portfolios. The fifth section deals with the management and maintenance of coalitions and touches on the impact of party alliances on women’s representation in politics. The sixth considers issues pertaining to the survival and collapse of political coalitions in the country. BACKGROUND History As of May 2004 Malawi had more than 30 registered political parties. The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) is the oldest, having been formed as a national mass movement to fight for independence from colonial rule. It remained a post-independence ruling party under Kamuzu Banda until 1994, when it was challenged and lost power to the United Democratic Front (UDF). Most of the parties formed in the 1990s, including the UDF, came into being out of the need to have an effective opposition so as to bring about democracy and to ensure respect for human rights. The UDF was formed in 1993 as an underground conscience-raising movement against the single-party dictatorship of the MCP. The formation of political parties in Malawi falls into four categories. The first comprises about six parties formed before the national referendum of 1993. These include the MCP, originally established in 1944 as the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), before the name was changed in 1959 (NAC was formed as a national liberation mass movement to fight for POLITICAL PARTY COALITIONS IN MALAWI 113 independence from colonial rule); the Congress for Second Republic (CSR), founded in exile in 1975, as was the Malawi Democratic Union (MDU), in 1981. The other three, the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), the Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) and the UDF, initially existed as pressure groups in 1991-92 before the 1993 referendum (Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation 1998). All parties apart from the MCP, which was registered in 1960, were officially registered in 1993 in time for the multiparty general elections. The second category consists of eight political parties formed and registered between 1995 and 1997. They are: the Malawi Freedom Party (MFP), the National Patriotic Front (NPF), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Sapitwa National Democratic Party (SNDP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Malawi National Democratic Party (MNDP), the United Front for Multi-Party Democracy (UFMD) and the United Party (UP). All these, as well as others not mentioned, participated in the 1999 multiparty elections from which the UDF emerged victorious. After the 1999 elections, most of them either lost momentum and dissolved or have become inactive and defunct. The UDF, MCP and AFORD, which secured representation in both the 177-seat1994 Parliament and the 193-seat 1999 Parliament, have hitherto remained major political parties. The MDP was the only party outside Parliament to have some visibility thanks to its leader, Kamlepo Kalua. The third category comprises four splinter parties that emerged after 2001 as breakaway factions from the three main pre-1994 political parties (MCP, AFORD and UDF). These include the Republican Party (RP), the New Congress for Democracy (NCD), the Movement for Genuine Democracy (MGODE) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), all of which are led by an old generation of politicians. They are discussed in detail below. The fourth and final category comprises parties formed by professional groups, business executives and newcomers with no active political profile. The first of these was the Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (MAFUNDE), which was launched in mid-2002. It was hoped that MAFUNDE would create more competition on the political landscape across the regional divide and break the tendency to recycle old politicians across the parties. In addition, the People’s Transformation Party (PETRA) was registered by the end of 2002. Distinct from the two relatively new parties was a third, the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM), formed in 2002 by a group of professionals, including lawyers, academics and prominent individuals from the Chamber of Commerce. In the spirit of inclusivity, the 114 THE POLITICS OF PARTY COALITIONS IN AFRICA PPM has a blend of both old and new politicians, among them its current president, Aleke Banda. Table 1 gives the list of registered parties and the date of their registration. Most of them are not represented in Parliament and tend to be active only once every five years, during general election periods. Table 1 List of Political Parties in Malawi, their Registration and Status in mid-2005 Party Date of Registration Status* Malawi Congress Party (MCP) 1960/19.08.93 * Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) 21.07.93 * United Democratic Front (UDF) 27.07.93 * United Front for Multi-Party Democracy (UFMD) 27.07.93 ** Malawi Democratic Party (MDP) 05.08.93 * Malawi National Democratic Party (MNDP) 11.08.93 ** Congress for Second Republic (CSR) 18.02.94 ** Social Democratic Party (SDP) 15.02.95 ** (formerly Christian Democratic Party) National Patriotic Front (NPF) 24.05.95 ** National Unity Party (NUP) 31.07.95 ** Malawi Freedom Party (MFP) 26.01.96 ** People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 10.10.96 ** Labour Party (LP) 29.05.97 ** United Party (UP) 15.08.97 ** Sapitwa National Democratic Party (SNDP) 24.10.97 ** Mass Movement for Young Generation (MMYG) 19.08.98 ** National Solidarity Party (NSP) 17.02.99 ** Congress for National Unity (CONU) 17.03.99 * People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) 20.03.02 * POLITICAL PARTY COALITIONS IN MALAWI 115 Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (MAFUNDE) 13.06.02 * Pamodzi Freedom Party (PFP) 21.10.02 ** People’s Freedom Party (PFP) 21.10.02 ** People’s Transformation Party (PETRA) 16.12.02 * National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 03.01.03 *** New Dawn of Africa (NDA) 03.01.03 ** Movement for Genuine Democracy (MGODE) 06.10.03 * People’s Popular Front (PPF) 06.10.03 ** Mtendere Ufulu Party (MUP) 16.01.04 ** New Congress for Democracy (NCD) 19.01.04 ** Republican Party (RP) 19.01.04 * United Democratic Party (UDP) 28.02.05 * Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 15.03.05 * *Active ** Dormant *** Dissolved Source: Registrar of Political Parties (Malawi), adapted by the authors PARTY STRUCTURES AND IDEOLOGY There are no distinct ideological differences between and among political parties in Malawi. Soon after the 1994 presidential and parliamentary elections it became apparent that most of the old politicians who had either managed to secure political influence in the new government or in opposition did not espouse and advocate a clear policy agenda to offer ideologically different solutions to the poverty and other social ills in society. To date, most of these parties can only be identified with specific tribal and elite groups and party colours, but not with unique ideology-based policy orientations. As Mekki Mtewa (1998) observed Political violence starts from lack of appealing programmes to enable political parties to win support. But ability to construct party ideologically based programs cannot be out of nothingness. After all, most of the parties were formed out of the need to have an effective opposition so as to safeguard democracy and to ensure respect for human rights.