Towards 2019

Awesome day, isn't it?

Last week the Venomous one wrote a whole lot about blood suckers and the issues surrounding the response to the local vampires. I was tempted to write an article around the same issue in line with the looting and whatever else is happening in Blantyre and the ugly scenes. I however have realized that what is happening in urban Blantyre is just an excuse for looting. The real blood sucker problem is something that is happening back home in the Lhomwe Belt. Nkhani yakumtundu iyi. We and our mweene will discuss it shortly when we hold the Mulhako wa Alhomwe annual festival. As of those people who are looting and stealing, I am told the Police and Military have something cooking for them tonight.

Lero I will talk politics and if you are thinking that the MCP victory has triggered this, you are more than just right.

Over the week we had by elections for members of the August house and ward councillors. These were tightly contested elections which generated a lot of hype from Malawians from all walks of life. The reason for that is simple. These by elections were more like a foretaste of what's to come in 2019. Or at least that's what most of us are thinking. This was more of a DPP-MCP duel  than it was a proper by election. For MCP, this was also a test of how firm the MCP grip was exerted on the lower states. Well. We had the elections and people voted. People dubbed it MCP's 5-1 victory over the DPP (or DziPPani as the Venomous Hope calls it). The MCP had won all the 5 constituencies that were up for grabs and the DPP walked away with the victory of a ward. People were ecstatic about the whole thing. Pictures of the front page of the Daily Times paper (which had coined the outcome "5-1") were shared all over the social media and there were a lot of memes that were generated from the same election result. The social media nation was and still is excited about the MCP victory.

One would wonder as to whether the excitement in the social media is a true reflection of the the national opinion. We probably haven't had much of experience with the social media in relation to the forecasting of General elections but one thing that I know for sure is that the proportion of Malawians that are on the social media is minute as compared to the one that is not. While we might get excited about what the 16 percent or so are sharing on the social media, we need to remember that the rest do not have the platform for expressing their opinions of the same. Kongeresi might be popular among those of us who are on Whatsapp but Umodzi party might be very popular among the masses in Kameme, Mphonongo and Kalimezako where the average dude does not know what Whatsapp is. This may mean that in as much as people might be excited about the new dawn in the social media, someone else who may not be popular on Facebook or Twitter may end up carrying the day after convincing (or maybe fooling) the masses come 2019. This makes 2019 elections more interesting, in my view.

Another interesting thing to think about before projecting the parliamentary by elections to the general elections in 2019 is the issue of the 2014 voting pattern and how people made a clear demarcation between voting for a political party and a person. Here is a curious case of Zomba Central constituency. In almost all centers, people voted for the DPP presidential candidate and People's Party parliamentary candidate. Reason? They were fed up with the DPP member of parliament and PP president. In other words, they were looking for change in those areas. They did not care about the consistency when it comes to political parties. This begs the question as to whether the choice of the presidential candidates had more to do with their personal potential or their party affiliation. It also begs the question as to whether we should generalize the parliamentary by elections to the general elections which include the choice for "el jefe" of the whole nation. We probably shouldn't be too excited.

There is another thing that is to be kept in mind in line with the elections is the current state of the contenders for the elections. The DPP had of late been associated with acts of violence. Gonapamuhanya. Remember? That scandal will surely cost them come northern votes. I saw a recent clip of DPP guys beating some random guy in the presence of a district governor. Reports also have it that some cadets from the same party took it as far as destroying the tarmac road in lower Shire, with the premise that Chakwera, whose party a certain constituency has voted for, should come and build another tarmac road.

The MCP, on the other hand has it's own intrastate squabbles which have seen some prominent members silenced. That is bad for business considering that cutting out some of the prominent leaders means chopping off votes.

Last but not least, we need to consider the fact that the election outcome is not always decided by the people who vote, but rather by the people who count the votes. No further details required.

2019 is coming slowly and with it are the most interesting and anticipated general elections. On the other hand, I am looking forward to the year because it is the year I will get engaged to my long time sweetheart. I will also be on a good and satisfying job, earning a decent seven figure  salary. I admit. I am looking forward to the elections, but my personal life has more to offer in the year, or so I think.

I can't wait for the year 2019.

Did I mention that it's my mum's birthday?

Taking gifts on her behalf, at the moment.

Have a lovely weekend.