Malawi parties call for police action on political violence

Six political parties including the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), have called on the police to act swiftly on any political violence and bring culprits to justice.

The parties’ Secretary Generals or their representatives made the appeal on Saturday in a joint communiqué which they issued after participating in a meeting jointly organized by Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) and Mangochi Multiparty Liaison Committee (MPLC).

The meeting was organized following a spate of political violence that occurred in Mangochi District and other areas across the country where members of United Transformation Movement (UTM) and MCP were assaulted respectively.

The six parties which included Alliance for Democracy (Aford), People’s Party (PP), United Transformation Party (UTM), and United Democratic Front (UDF), has challenged government and law enforcers to “leave no stone unturned” until everyone behind such acts is brought to justice.

“We demand the police to work tirelessly to bring these perpetrators of violence to justice and that, through them, those who fuel these incidents should also be brought to justice,” reads part of the communiqué signed by the parties’ representatives.

“We further ask all political parties, especially the party in government, to leave the police to do their work independently: all political parties should desist from influencing, intimidating, or interfering with the work of the police,” the communiqué stated.

The Political Parties call for an establishment of Party Leaders Summit which they say should receive reports and hear concerns to make pronouncements to encourage peaceful political coexistence and condemn political violence.

The Party representatives have pledged that they would engage their party leaders to make an open pronouncement against political violence and to order the strictest punishment to their party members found inciting violence of any kind.

CMD Executive Director, Kizito Tenthani described the bringing together of the six parties to the meeting and whatever transpired therein as a milestone towards achieving peaceful elections on May 21,2019.

He said although the deliberations among the six parties had been intense, the parties had positive attitudes towards peaceful elections.

“Although there was a lot of finger-pointing at each other, there was good will from all political parties and they have all made calls to their topmost leaders to denounce violence,” Tenthani explained.

District Commissioner (DC) for Mangochi, Rev. Moses Chimphepo described the meeting as a great success and called upon the party representatives to keep their word as jointly agreed in the communiqué.

The communiqué is co-signed by Grace Chuma of Aford; Eisenhower Mkaka, MCP Secretary General; DPP’s National Director of Political Affairs, Khwauli Msiska; PP’s Ibrahim Matola; UDF Spokesperson, Ken Ndanga; and UTM’s Deputy Secretary General, Levi Liwemba.

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