ELECTION FEVER GRIPS BLANTYRE/Malawi News Online Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - editor@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Subscribe to MALAWI NEWS ONLINE FOR ALL THE NEWS OF THE ELECTION! MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is written by Malawian journalists living in Malawi and brings you the news from their point of view. It is assembled and edited by Africa News Network, part of South Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement in Denmark. MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is one of our individual newsletters and together with those from Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Lesotho and Angola, provides up to date news through our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. These newsletters will be followed, in the very near future, by news updates from other countries in the region. MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is brought to you through a co-operation between Africa News Network, South Africa Contact and Inform, Denmark's leading alternative information network. ELECTION FEVER GRIPS BLANTYRE 11JUNE, Malawi. With barely four days to polling, the first impression a visitor to Malawi will get is that the ruling United Democratic Front will be swept to power in the Pesidential and Parliamntary elections on June 15 with a land slide victory. Indeed that is the view one forms going by the abundance of the party's colours whereever one goes throughout the country. In the city of Blantyre electricity poles are competiting for space with the party's yellow flags which are flying at almost every idle piece of land. Yellow pieces of cloth hang in almost each and every car being driven by a UDF supporter. The party has also printed a wide range of symbols in its colours on items ranging from plates, cups, mugs, hand towels, ballpoint pens, rulers, note books, bicycles, t-shirts, shirts, caps, clocks, carrier bags to sweets which have and are being distributed free of charge throughout the country. Pro-UDF publications mostly supported by government advertising have squandered no opportunity in the campaign to vilify the opposition. Even respected newspapers owned by UDF politicians but generally regarded as being balanced have used every opportunity to campaign for the UDF. Save for the Daily Times and its sister weekly publication Malawi News, and National Agenda all funded by the Blantyre Newspapers owned by the late president Kamuzu Banda, there is virtually nothing that other parties are displaying to show their presence or clout. But wait a minute. All this is misleading. Talk to a few people in the streets, offices, at the market place and other social gatherings and you begin to get a feel of how much following other political parties in the country have too. Malawi's second multiparty elections are set to be a close-run thing because frontrunner President Bakili Muluzi is neck and neck with main opposition alliance candidate Gwanda Chakuamba. So why is the opposition not equally visibly present in the city and other areas? They do not have that much money to spend as the UDF. As a result most of them are spending the little they have on organising rallies. And it is from the patronage of their campaign rallies that one also begins to get a balanced view of how divided Malawians are on party affiliation. In its campaign the UDF has also largely and unfairly monopolised the national broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. Under the Presidential and Parliamentary Act and the newly-enforced Coomunications Act, all political parties are supposed to be given equal coverage of their campaign material on the radio. But this has not been the case. The High Court in Blantyre on June 10 ruled that MBC was wrong in not giving live coverage of opposition rallies and ordered the radio station to change. This has come too late. ''We have fought the battle without MBC and won it without MBC. It is too late for MBC to open up now. What for?'' says Alliance spokesman Heatherwick Ntaba. In 1994, Muluzi won the presidency by getting 47 percent of the vote. Some 1.1 million of the 1.4 million votes came from the South. His performance in the North and Centre was dismal. However, the UDF thinks it will scoop most of the votes in the South which has slightly below 50 percent of the 5 million votes, the alliance thinks otherwise and expects to get atleast half of the 2.4 million votes in the region. Chakuamba thinks that he and Muluzi who both come from the South will share the votes equally in the region. UDF also claims it has made inroads in the Centre and will clinch half of the 1.9 million votes from the region. But the alliance expects to get a majority of the votes there too where MCP holds sway. The North with 600,000 votes is a foregone conclusion. It still remains an alliance stronghold. Even UDF diehards admit this fact. While the UDF has scored some successes in a few areas suh as increasing primary school enrolment, introducing the World Bank-funded programme-Malawi Social Action Fund- which contructs schools, roads bridges, clinics in the rural areas, upheld human rights, sustained freedom of expression and association, many Malawians feel poorer since Muluzi took over in 1994. Econonic analysts say Muluzi has failed to boost farmers' income and has pushed up food prices for town dwellers. tobacco prices have stayed down and government has failed to develop new forms of foreign exchange earnings. The alliance will largely win votes on the basis of projecting itself as a national coalition which brings all the three regions together. This is the very reason the UDF tried although unsuccessfully to block the alliance. The final test for the alliance and UDF comes this weekend when two the groups hold their final rallies to woo people in Blantyre on Saturday. Muluzi will make his final bid for power in Limbe, a twin city to Blantyre. Chakuamba will be six kilometres away in Blantyre. The other three presidential candidates, MDP's Kamlepo Kalua, former secretary general of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa Bingu wa Mutharika and newly-formed president for Congress for National Unity Bishop Daniel Mnkhumbwe, have made little impact on the campaign. Official campaign which started on March 19 ended at 6 am on Sunday, 48 hours before the start of polling. ****************************** MALAWI NEWS ONLINE A bi-monthly update of news from Malawi! If you would like to receive more information about MALAWI NEWS ONLINE, or about our other newsletters or upcoming newsletters, please send an e-mail to: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk We can also be contacted by fax and by phone at: Fax: + 45 35 35 43 32 Phone:+ 45 35 35 96 32 Letters to the editor can be sent to: editor@inform-bbs.dk (Mary Tingay) If you know of anyone else who might be interested in subscribing to MALAWI NEWS ONLINE, please let us know and tell them about us! To subscribe send an e-mail to: subscribeAfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk For a one year subscription: Students US$17 Pounds Sterling 11 DKK99 Individuals US$22 Pounds Sterling 14 DKK128 Institutions US$100 Pounds Sterling 60 DKK680 NGOs US$50 Pounds Sterling 30 DKK340 Further information, on multiple subscriptions, special rates or subscribing by fax or mail, available on request. Subscriptions can be paid by credit card (VISA, American Express, MasterCard, JCB, Eurocard, Dankort), bank transfer or international cheque. If subscriptions are paid by cheque, it will be necessary to add US$10 to cover exchange costs. Postal address: Malawi News Online, Wesselsgade 4, Post Box 25, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. c South Africa Contact ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-06.19.99-02:54:46-6062