Chilima going to court: ‘They’re refusing to register UTM as a party’
United Transformation Movement (UTM) has said it will appeal at the High Court the decision by Registrar of Political Parties to refuse to register the grouping as a political party in Malawi.
UTM filed the documents with the Registrar of Political Parties on September 13 2018 but the Registrar has rejected the application because “the application is not conformity with the [Political Parties] Act in terms of Section 7 (1) as read with Section 18(a) (1) and (ii) of the Act”.
Deputy registrar of political parties, Chikumbutso Numelo, said in the application UTM officials “consciously and deliberately submitted documents which carefully omit any reference to the full name under which they have been publicly holding out as [United Transformation Movement].”
Numelo said: “The publicly known fact that UTM is not a standalone name but an abbreviation for United Transformative Movement is a relevant matter which as Registrar of Political Parties with responsibility of registering and regulating political parties I have to take into account.”
But UTM leader Saulso Chilima said in a post on his Facebook page in quick reaction to the development that they will seek court help.
“The registrar of political parties is refusing to register us as a party but we’ll not relent. We have trust in our justice system and we will ket the law take its course,” wrote the technical savy youthful politician on his Facebook page.
He said UTM activites will meanwhile continue and it is reported that they have a rally in Ndirande Township, Blantyre on Saturday.
In a statement, UTM spokesperson Joseph Chidanti-Malunga said they “vehemently disagree” with the determination of the Registrar of Political Parties on a number of reasons and that they were not given an opportunity to be heard on the matter.
Malunga said they have instructed the movement’s legal counsel to file an appeal in the High Court against the determination of the Registrar.
UTM is appealing to its members, supporters and all well wishers to “remain calm as the situation is under control.”
But the deputy registrar pointed out that the decision to present registration documents in the name of UTM and not the full name, United Transformation Movement, from which the abbreviation UTM derives was “will fully intended to mislead the Registrar of political parties for purposes of obtaining registration of the party.”
Numelo believes the scheme “to mislead” the Registrar was motivated by the knowledge of the applicants of the existence of the United Transformation Party (UTP) being a name which resembles that of United Transformation Movement – which the Registrar would have considered in registering owing to Section 7 (b) (ii) – due to its similarities.
UTP is led by Newton Kambala, a businessperson and former president of Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI), who is now in UTM and has been saying publicly that they rebranded to UTM.
The Registrar has also informed the applicants that it is an offence under Section 17 of the Political Parties Act to electioneer in connection with an election in which political parties contest unless it is a registered party.
Numelo said if UTM is not satisfied with the decision it can appeal to the High Court within 21 days.
UTP registered as political party number 50 on March 23 2016 and has been a key member of opposition political parties, primarily without parliamentary representation, that formed a coalition bloc dubbed ‘Tikonze Dziko Lathu’, to field a candidate during next year’s polls.
UTM, which started as Chilima Movement, and has been working with Wodya Zake Alibe Mlandu political grouping headed by Michael Usi, popularly known as Manganya. has maintained UTP’s red and gold colours, but changed other things such as the logo and motto.
They will hold their elective convention on November 9 2018 at a venue to be communicated later.
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BY ANY WAY UTP AND UTM ARE NOT THE SAME AND CANNOT CONFUSE PEOPLE IN ANY WAY WHAT ABOUT DPP AND PP THESE END WITH P’S BOUT PEOPLE DIFFERENTIATE AND STILL EVEN IF IT CAN BE REGISTERED AS MOVEMENT WITHOUT PARTY MAKES NO DIFFERENT COZ NOT ALL PARTIES HERE IN MALAWI END WITH PARTY LIKE UDF WE DONT SAY UNITED DEMEOCRATIC FRONT PARTY (UDFP) ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY AFORD NOT ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY PARTY AFORDP SO WHATS IS WRONG WITH UTM ONLY OR THE REGISTERER HAS BEEN PALM OILED TO BE A SABOTEGE
Umenewu ndiye ubulutu. The party was already registered by Newton Kambala as UTP. Kambala later rebranded it to UTM hence no need to register it. Congratulations the Registrar of Political Parties on your professionalism.
How about PPM?
I wonder why they have rejected to register UTM? Is it becoz it doesnt have the letter “P” in it?
Here in SA, we have ANC, DA, EFF among others, but these political parties dont have a letter “P” in them, In Zim there iz MDC of Nelson Chamisa still it was registered as aparty without letter “P” in it.
Ine yo ndi sapota wankulu diehard wa UTM 100% but registrer akunena zoona guys mwachisanzo ineyo ndi MIKE JOSUA NKHOMA ndiye ndapita kokayamba school ndingawauze aphunzisi kuti zinalanga ndine M.J.N. ndikuthera pomwepo mphuzisiyo angandilembe zosatheka but lonse full name ndiye apa palibe zopita ku court tango tambasulani zinalo ife tizakuvoteranibe ndipo muzawina koma zaku court aaaaa does not make sense at all
mwana opusayu ndi ntambwalinso etia? kkkkkk.
No wonder Gogo uja adati ichi ndiye chifwamba chenicheni.
A registrar of the party UTM and UTP are not the same and can not mislead any sane person except insane you. MDF, UDF and IDF cannot mislead as one is Malawi Defence Force, the other United Democratic Front and the remaining one Israeli Defence Force. Dont be an idiot. Your job will be at stake.
what if one comes and register his party as united transfomation movement in future while chilima has utm dont u seet that its good just to register it as it is now? what ppl must know is if it can be registered to day as UTM,it means any one can come tomorrow and register his party as united transfamation movement.its allowed becz it will be like we dont have a party to this name in our political party list.this rejection is to advantage of utm
The name of the registrar too is misleading. What does Numelo stand for or mean? He has a fake name. He should be fired. He needs to give the meaning of his name first as shown in his National ID. Does his national ID show the meaning of Numelo if not it is a fake ID.
Its not the issue of meaning but standalone of the word. Numelo is a standalone word whilst UTM is not a standalone word hence misleading. Why are they afraid of using their full name pano zavuta osamanyadila bwanji dzina lano. This shows how crooked Chilima is.
Kodi ID imawonetsa meaning ya dzina la munthu? Kodi aliyense amadziwa meaning ya dzina lake? Don’t mislead people amwene….
Kodi a Malawi why do we choose to be ignorant on things that are just simple? UTM was and is not a a party,what am trying to say is, if UTM is registered to day it means we have two parties in power, don’t forget that Chilima is the Second in Commander of the Republic, and again if his Movement will be a party, is it going to be Opposition Party? How is he going to Oppose himself? We have many Presidents in Africa who has done great things while in Government, and many of them are not Political Parties,… Read more »
How did Joyce Banda register her party when she was still VP ,……….Your argument is so weak
When did P.P Started? was it before Bingu died or after? if the answer is before he died then P.P followed ndondomeko pokalembetsa, because we have a history on this, why U.T.M is having a problem in the same leadership that others registered without any challenges? She was the vice President of Malawi and she started her P.P as a Party not ngati wodya zake alibe mulandu. Gertrude,if you can follow me properly you will understand me more than what you have raised here unless you have decided to oppose every thing, by the way if we can follow what… Read more »
You are clearly dull
Your argument does not hold. the issue is UTM is an abbreviation for United Transformation Movement and the applicants should have stated like that. the idea is UTM may as well mean something else
On the one hand Kaitano you have a good point where you state that will it be a party in opposition. On the other hand you probably were thinking too much that you missed one important factor. To be in opposition or government you have to at least have a member of parliament. UTM has none. Same as the many briefcase parties. Our constitution is so shallow and needs serious people to fix it. My only hope is saulos will shed these pumbwas he has on his bus and work with like minded people otherwise nayenso adzayiona bangwe.
Mukugona bwanji amwene UTM has members of parliament likes of Patricia kaliati, winiko ,msowoya list is endless
kkkkkkkkkkk…….. mebmbers of party you are talking abt, have they crossed the floor?
The party’s wish is to register it as UTM why forcing them to the name which they don’t want
UTM is united transformation Movement , a movement is not a part check in the world where we can find United Democratic movement or Malawi congress movement . This is part registration not Movement registration office
What if tommorrow another party registers as United Transformation Party and chose to use no abbreviation ‘UTM’, will that be acceptable with you/Chilima movement? Again, we have so many illiterate Malawians, will UTM and UTP not confuse them on the ballot paper? This is what the law as cited is trying to avoid. Don’t just think about today, there is tommorrow as well
Yeah! The rejection is meant to address the confusion it will cause on ballot papers. So the best thing for those members is to add one or two words to their name i.e. United National Party for Transformation Movement (UNTM) …