Regionalism hit mayoral polls in Malawi – Analyst

Following mayoral polls that Malawi had in the cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu, a local political analyst has said regionalism influenced the outcome of the elections.

The analyst Ernest Thindwa argued that the elected mayors had party influence from the regions of strength to make it possible for them to win the seats.

Thindwa disclosed that People’s Party’s (PP) strength in the northern region has led to the re-election of Councillor William Mkandawire while for the southern region, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councillor Wild Ndipo made it due to his party’s strength in the region.

Malawi Congress Party’s (MCP) dominance in the central region led to the election of Desmond Bikoko who became mayor for Lilongwe last week.

“The results were expected in that way, because of regionalism that affect our polls in the country, the defeat of Noel Chalamanda has been due to not standing on party ticket, we need to look at the political behaviour for the whole country, Malawians in general vote for parties and not issues,” said Thidwa.

Party regionalism is said to have been influencing elections in Malawi since the birth of multiparty due to originality of founders of the parties.

The ruling DPP is reported to have more vote favours from people from the South while opposition MCP takes the majority of votes in elections from the central region as the founder late Kamuzu Banda was from Kasungu.

PP is said to have dominance in the North as the husband to former President Joyce Banda comes from that region.