DPP — We are Coming for you.

It pleased the Malawi Congress Party on Tuesday to gather its National Executive Committee under the watchful eye of former President Lazarus Chakwera, and the message the party wanted its supporters to carry home was simple, blunt, and repeated like a mantra:

DPP we are coming for you.

The Malawi Congress Party has signalled it is already preparing for its next political battle, with former President Lazarus Chakwera leading a National Executive Committee meeting as the opposition party begins rebuilding its political machinery after losing government.

One has to feel for the MCP. The poor fellas lost government, and now they must do what opposition parties do best. Rebuild, reconnect, and pretend the last five years were merely a strategic sabbatical.

Chakwera, who once sat in the big chair at Sanjika Palace, now finds himself presiding over a party that must relearn the art of opposition. The NEC meeting brought together the senior leadership to assess organisation, direction and strategy the usual polite euphemisms for “we are in a mess and we know it.”

That work will require more than political rhetoric. MCP will need to demonstrate that it can translate its national support into an effective opposition operation, maintain a strong presence beyond its traditional strongholds, and offer voters a credible alternative to the government.

Today’s NEC meeting therefore marked more than a routine gathering of party officials. It was an early indication that MCP is beginning to organise for the road ahead and that the DPP remains the principal political target

MCP may have lost government.

But if today’s meeting is anything to go by, the party is not preparing to disappear.

And the message from the meeting?

DPP — we are coming for you.