A legal expert has expressed reservations on the practicality of the country going into a fresh presidential election.

The remarks follows what Vice President Saulos Chilima has said on Friday that if the Tonse Alliance is to be terminated there is need to call for a fresh presidential election.

Chilima said: “Indeed, if we were to terminate the Alliance, in honesty we would have to call for a fresh presidential election. We should not continue our journey to 2025 with two hearts.”

But commenting on the call, the legal expert – Dr Bernadette Malunga said the country’s laws do not provide for such provision.

She said: “Elections are governed by law and the Constitution as well as some statutes and they have own time and schedule that are provided by the law.

What he [Chilima] is saying is not provided for in the law because the agreement was between the two parties and it wasn’t partitioned based on our laws so he is saying makes sense in the political language but it’s not legally possible.”

Another political expert Chimwemwe Tsitsi has described Chilima’s disclosure of Alliance agreements as a recipe for the country’s political complications.

“Politically, I think the obvious implication is that somehow the trust that the Alliance partners get especially Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM may not be the same, Malawians would expect transparency from their leaders.
People would still question their [Tonse Alliance leaders] commitment to transparency to Malawians and we are likely to see divisions in the Alliance, especially between UTM and MCP,” Tsitsi said.

Tonse Alliance, which was formed ahead of the 2020 court-sanctioned presidential election, is made up of nine political parties led by the MCP and UTM Party.