The idea of a dream-ticket alliance by Malawi's main opposition parties to bring down the government in the 1999 elections is on the rocks. The leaders of the Malawi Congress Party are at loggerheads and neither wants to sacrifice his chances to stand against Muluzi in the presidential. Hobbs Gama reports.

The much touted alliance between the main opposition parties - the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the Alliance for Democracy (Aford) - is already in difficulties. A power struggle has rocked the MCP putting the whole alliance in danger, ruining its chances in the elections scheduled for May 1999.

President Bakili Muluzi's UDF may still be able to resist the joint challenge despite its record of economic mismanagement which is worrying both Western donors and ordinary Malawians.

The MCP's internal power struggle between its president Gwanda Chakuamba and its vice president, John Tembo is threatening the opposition alliance. Aford is now left in the cold as it waits for the MCP to sort itself out. But the two leaders are each determined to stand as presidential candidates in the May elections.

Yet the whole purpose of the alliance was that the two parties would unite and present a joint candidate who could oust Muluzi.

John Tembo is rumoured to have sought support from the office of the British High Commission in Malawi and to be the only man in the MCP with "an agenda" for reform and economic progress.

But Chakuamba is a southerner, he could thus present a better challenge to Muluzi who comes from the same region, while Tembo's stronghold is the centre of the country. Chihana is a northerner and he wants to bring Aford into the alliance claiming that his region has been marginalised and undeveloped during the 30 years of Banda's rule.

In the 1994 presidential elections, Muluzi secured 1.4m votes, mostly from the more populous south. Banda won nearly a million for the MCP, mostly from the centre and Chihana only just over half a million in the less densely populated north. Clearly, it is the southern vote that will swing the 1999 elections, unless the north and centre can get together.

The rift between Chakuamba and Tembo was fuelled by Muluzi who revealed at a campaign rally that Chakuamba had written him a letter asking for him to "lock Tembo away for ever" after Tembo had been arrested for allegedly stealing millions of kwacha from the former government. Muluzi implied that Chakuamba was trying to use him to get rid of Tembo. Since then the two MCP leaders have been at loggerheads.

The MCP is also in dire financial straits since it has lost its principal source of income, Banda's Press Trust to the government . The Trust's bank accounts have been frozen and party workers have been laid off with others evicted for rent arrears. Its problems are not only financial. Since December 1996, the party has seen eight of its MPs depart accusing the leadership of lacking transparency and direction. Two defected to the ruling UDF, while six declared themselves independent.

"When the MCP proposed the alliance, we looked at it as a good tool that we could employ to achieve unity, it was also important because it brought strength to form an alternative goverment," laments the Aford Publicity Secretary Dan Mswoya. "We would still like to move as quickly as possible because time is running out."

Both parties want their leaders to sort out their differences and make the alliance work. This is because it is the only chance they have of defeating Muluzi and the UDF which is accused of having failed the economy.

"Malawi needs an alternative government," says George Kaliwo, a lawyer and political analyst.

Malawi was particularly hard hit by the 60% devaluation of the Malawi kwacha since August. This has resulted in soaring inflation and price hikes of the most basic commodities.

Muluzi and his government attribute this to the low tobacco prices at this year's auctions, but local economists attribute the present troubles to official corruption and economic mismanagement by Muluzi and his henchmen.