Come and challenge me, Mutharika dares DPP aspirants wishing to contest for the party’s presidency
Despite having been tacitly endorse, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Peter Mutharika has come out from the cocoon and dared aspirants for the party’s top seat of a level-playing field at the elective convention scheduled for August 17 and 18.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with one of the weeklies in the country, the former State president said he has always been an advocate of fair and transparent elections.
He said: “Let me assure all those aspiring for the presidency and other positions of a level-playing field in the elections.
“We need as many competitors as possible for all the positions so that people have a credible choice.
“It will be free and fair and aspirants are encouraged to get nomination papers.”
However, a political analyst said in an interview that while Mutharika’s assurance sounds nice, what is happening on the ground is different.
Political and governance pundit Victor Chipofya said: “First of all, words alone do not carry weight, but action.
“We know that APM himself might be democratic, but the party’s spokesperson Shadric Namalomba recently said all the delegates had already endorsed APM and that statement could make it difficult for other aspirants to contest for the same post.
“Now, how can you expect the playing-field to be level under such circumstances? How do you balance that?
Meanwhile, a senior party official and Chiradzulu South lawmaker Joseph Mwanamvekha said in a separate interview yesterday that the DPP leader has always emphasised free and fair elections.
“I don’t have doubts in what he said because previously, in 2014 and 2018, he advocated for fair, transparent polls so that aspirants should compete at the same level.’’
Mwanamvekha is one of the people who expressed interest to vie for the DPP presidency, but relinquished his ambitions in May this year after Mutharika announced at a rally in Blantyre that he would be the party’s torchbearer in next year’s general election.
Others linked with the position, the party’s vice-president for the Eastern Region Bright Msaka and businessperson Paul Gadama, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Reacting to Mutharika’s assurance, “Besides, we have seen people like Dalitso Kabambe and Kondwani Nankhumwa, who were also aspiring for the same position, leaving the party. So, his assurance sounds nice, but what is happening is different.”
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