A group calling itself MCP Veterans attempted to physically seal off the offices of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) president and former Head of State Lazarus Chakwera and secretary general Richard Chimwendo Banda on Tuesday, in a dramatic escalation of the internal power struggle now consuming the opposition party. The audacious move appears to have been a deliberate attempt to trigger a full leadership contest, amid deepening internal divisions that have seen a vocal faction within MCP openly demanding that Chakwera hand over the reins of party leadership. Chakwera’s spokesperson Gift Nankhuni, who also serves as an MCP MP and works as a private practice lawyer, insisted he had no knowledge of any coordinated movement building against the party president. Despite his own ambitions, Major was quick to distance himself from Tuesday’s dramatic office-sealing attempt, dismissing those responsible in strikingly personal terms. Describing himself as “President in-waiting,” Major insisted he was not party to what he branded “trivial matters of people with small brains” who had sought to physically seal the party’s offices.