By Mabuchi Chunga

Political and policy analyst Professor Happy Kayuni has expressed his concern over the current instability in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) saying this will affect the country’s governance system.

He made the remarks following a string of events including the stepping down of some senior DPP officials in past weeks the most recent being the former Minister of Transport Ralph Jooma.

Kayuni said although it is a common occurrence when political parties lose governing power for people to leave it disturbs good governance as the opposition is weakened.

He also pointed out the importance of having a strong opposition which provides checks and balances for the government.

“It is important that we should have a strong opposition, so that ultimately it will push government to make sure that they deliver,” said Kayuni.

As a remedy Kayuni also implored political parties to plan ahead regarding party leadership since this is one of the factors that leads to people disagreeing in a political party.

Kayuni pointed out that most political party leaders regard themselves as eternal leaders which provides uncertainty for other party members who would like to take up leadership of the party.

He said good leadership should be shown in political parties by the leaders who are willing to groom people who will take over after them and also allow people to express their interest in leadership.

“We should take into consideration the issue of succession planning because in most political parties especially here in Malawi, the leader of the party is assumed to be in that position forever so when the time has come for him or her to step down there are a lot of confusion since there was no proper planning on who is to succeed them,” said kayuni.

In the previous weeks the country has witnessed several DPP members leaving the party and not long ago the party fired it’s secretary general for her radical thoughts.