Experts have decried the tendency of politicians to leverage sports as a tactic to garner support from the youth in the countdown to the 2025 general elections, saying the tendency is counterproductive.
As the campaign trail heats up, excitement and tension build up and the stakes grow higher. It is a critical phase in the election process and candidates must navigate it skillfully to succeed.
Walking to almost every corner of the country, there is a resurgence of sports tournaments courtesy of political positions and aspiring candidates— masquerading as patriots of sports development.
Although it is a fact that numbers play a pivotal role in determining the outcomes of any election, some experts believe using sports tournaments as a way of swaying the youth to vote for a particular candidate is uncalled for.
Governance advocate and Team Leader at the Centre for Governance and Leadership (CEGOL), Chimwemwe Kaonga, describes the tendency by such politicians as a raw deal as most of these tournaments are not run in good faith.
“The tournaments are meant to woo votes from the youth constituency. Politicians take advantage of the plight of jobless young people to get them engaged through sports.
While youth in sports is one of the priority areas in the Malawi National Youth Policy, there are some critical areas which they can also focus on as outlined in the policy including in sectors of employment, enterprise and skills development, innovation, education and creative industry,” said Kaonga.
Kaonga added: “We have a majority of young people who are carried away by such initiatives and as a result, they end up voting for individuals who lack vision and commitment for developing their communities. When they get elected, they go absent without leave and resurface when it is yet another voting period with another trophy.
“He believes that it is high time aspirants need to be taken to task regarding which initiatives they are bringing along those lines apart from trophies.
Political analyst Dr.George Chaima says that as much as there is no particular season for sports, sudden interest and appearances of politicians in this arena are suspicious and deceptive.
“Periodically, their emergency during elections period is one way of manipulating the youth to gain favours from politicians in exchange for their vote. Nothing mutual,” said Chaima.
He further said the consequences of such conduct are deplorable among the youth who are abused and assigned to different tasks of carrying their political masters on their shoulders for political gain; instead of promoting the youth to more economically viable ventures, politicians are busy misusing them silently.
Chaima challenges the youth to wake up from slumber and refuse to cooperate with such abusive acts by politicians.“It is time the youth started demanding their rightful space in the society,” he said.
