The revelations come as a surprise because UTM is the youngest party on the land having been founded in 2018.
By Malawi Exclusive
Amidst a veil of having received $1 million dollars from Zuneth Sattar, Vice President and UTM leader Saulos Chilima has spent K3 billion to buy 200 new vehicles for his party in preparation of the 2025 Presidential election.
The revelations come as a surprise because UTM is the youngest party on the land having been founded in 2018.
The purchase of new vehicles and other assets makes UTM the richest party in Malawi, dwarfing all the other major parties like Malawi Congress Party, Democratic Progressive Party, United Democratic Front and Peoples Party.
The current situation brings to light the need for Parliament and other stakeholders to revisit the issue around political party financing.
Funding of political parties is in line with Section 40(2) of the Constitution but for UTM the situation is different due to its meagre numbers in Parliament.
The enactment of the Political Parties Act by Parliament opened a way for all parties that have a one-tenth threshold in Parliament to have their financial accounts audited.
Despite coaxing new Members of Parliament to their fold, UTM appears in records to have four legislators as per the 2019 Parliamentary election outcome. As such they fall short of the one-tenth of 193 seats of Parliament.
Political observers say UTM presents a headache in this regard because they are at liberty to accumulate assets yet they cannot be audited as per law.
The observers say UTM must explain to Malawians how they are getting rich at a faster rate than normal.