By Aubrey Thom Vakhani
Conducting primary elections is a process political parties mostly use to identify candidates [both local government and parliamentary] to represent their respective party during general elections.
Currently, no political party in the country has conducted primary elections in readiness for the 2025 General Elections.
However, branded t-shirts, caps, vehicles and other campaign materials for individuals who have declared to contest for either as a councilllor or Member of Parliament (MP) are all over in most constituencies and wards across the country.
Such branded materials have names of such individuals with a logo for the party they intend to represent with messages like “Person X 2025 Boma”, “Political Party Y” and “its president Boma”.
Speaking in an interview, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) national publicity secretary, Shadric Namalomba said his party has been always supportive of individuals, such as shadow MPs or councillors, who choose to brand their vehicles with personalised messaging.
“However, it is important for everyone to understand that when the time comes, the party will hold primaries in order to carefully select the individuals who will represent us in the 2025 local and parliamentary elections. If an individual does not succeed in the primaries, they will be kindly asked to remove their branded messaging. This is not meant to be restrictive, but rather to ensure that our chosen representatives accurately reflect the values and goals of our party. We encourage all members to participate in the primaries and support the chosen candidates to ensure a successful outcome for our party and our community,” said Namalomba.
In her remarks, Alliance for Democracy (Aford) national publicity secretary, Amatullah Annie Maluwa said those individuals branding their vehicles, they have the right to do so adding that on the other hand is part of marketing either the party or themselves in readiness for the party’s primary elections.
“In Malawi, the primary elections for the 2025 general elections have not yet taken place. As a political party, we are still reviewing a number of electoral reforms. Once we are done, we shall conduct primary elections whose dates shall be announced in due course,” said Maluwa.
She added: “Mind you, we just conducted our party elective conference and office bearers are just settling down in their respective offices.”
On his part, UTM Party national publicist, Felix Njawala said individuals can continue campaigning as they are waiting for primaries.
“After primaries, we will declare our candidates,” he said.
Political commentator Wonderful Mkutche said this is the right time for candidates to start positioning themselves for next year’s elections.
“As they say; an early bird catches the worm. As such, they will need to popularise their names, faces, and manifestos using all the materials that they can.
“Every candidate enters the race knowing that they will either win or lose. Therefore, they will not have problems with accepting the result should they lose as long as they are convinced that the electoral process was conducted with satisfaction”, said Mkhutche.
He said Malawi is one of the most vibrant electoral democracies in Africa.
“We do see this through people’s participation even during primaries where people openly vote for their candidate,” he said.
On his part, Mzuzu University (Mzuni)-based political analyst, Chrisphin Mphande said primary elections are key especially where more than one candidate are competing for either parliamentary or local government saying such an arrangement allows people to choose a candidate of their choice as opposed to imposing such a candidate.
He however, said parties have their own working plans on when and how to conduct such elections.
“Before that, most aspiring candidates are at liberty to woo their supporters. At this point, there are no restrictions. What the matters most is how parties treat the outcome of such elections. How will they manage the losers. In the past, some losers resorted to standing on an independent ticket while some [mostly opportunists] will defect to other parties,” said Mphande.
