“THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND” (Arabian Proverb)

The Chinese have a similar proverb that says, "It is good to strike the serpent's head with your enemy's hand."

These proverbs seem quite appropriate for the current political scenario rolling out in Malawi. The ‘surprise’ move by 2 of the largest parties to merge has drastically changes the demographics for the upcoming elections.

Some say this was the plan all along hence Brown Mpinganjira’s move to join the MCP tag team early in the race. According to some, the strategy was for former president Bakili Muluzi to submit his nomination papers knowing all along that the chances were slim for his nomination to go through. The rejection would be shown as political manoeuvrings by the ruling party to block him from contesting and hence reflect badly on them. This was reinforced by the ill-timed ACB case against him that ‘surprising’ came up just before the elections.

Some political analysts have always maintained that JZU Tembo’s (MCP) chances for the top job were already strong. The reasoning was simple mathematics: with the Southern region split 3 way between the 3 main parties, and MCP’s strength giving them the lead in the centre it was almost a given that JZU would be the next President of Malawi.

Other analysts felt that before the coalition, independent polls seemed to swing in the favour of the ruling DPP party, but this new development swings the pendulum in favour of the coalition. Muluzi & JZU, both formidable forces even when their own, will make a lethal force when combined. With these two giants joining forces the outcome of these results seems inevitable. JZU’s long awaited dream of becoming the President of Malawi will soon be realised.

One wonders what happens at the Parliamentary Elections level. Will the prospective MPs from these two parties compete with each other and split the vote in so doing paving the way to victory for DPP contestants? If the coalition is to have one candidate for each seat who would concede their candidate?