Malawi political terrain not in favour of Joyce Banda to contest for presidency – Analyst
A political scientist based at Chancellor College in Zomba, a constituent college of the University of Malawi (Unima), Happy Kayuni has said the current political terrain in the country does not favour former president Joyce Banda’s aspirations to contest in 2019 presidential elections.
Banda—who came a distant third to President Peter Mutharika in 2014 elections —indicated in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) Striaght Talk Africa program this week that she is ready to return home from self imposed exile in United States and serve the people of Malawi if asked to be on the ballot in 2019 elections.
But Kayuni, an associate professor of public administration at Chancellor College, has quashed Banda’s aspirations, saying the former president is not the form of an alternative for Malawi to replace her successor Mutharika.
Mutharika has been under a barrage of criticism for being inept and underperforming.
Kayuni said despite Mutharika’s performance, the current political terrain of the country in not in favour of the former female president.
“Even if the current president [Peter Mutharika] is deemed not performing, I don’t think the alternative can be Joyce Banda in the Malawian political landscape at the moment,” Kayuni is quoted in the local press as saying.
“What is happening now is that most likely we will have emerging prospective leaders and considering that she has been away for too long that I think in the mind of Malawians she is a spent politician,” Kayuni said.
He further said Banda’s plans to launch a bid to serve the people of Malawi again would be wasting her time.
Other political observers say her political party, the Peoples Party (PP) has lost ground and support with many members quitting and many fortune seekers who truned orange when she was in power have either joined ruling DPP or Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
Commentators also say Banda’s abscence has affected the political momentum in PP with the current leadership being weak.
But speaking to VOA’s veteran journalist, Shaka Ssali, Banda said: “At the end of the day, if you are talking about my political life, it is Malawians who will decide. If Malawians are saying I should continue; they want me to stand again, I shall go back home and answer that call.”
The former president said she is currently finishing her research on women’s leadership and girls’ education at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington DC.
Banda became the first serving Malawian president to lose an election.
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Joyce Banda is done, she has stayed too long away from the suffering Malawians, she has became irrelevant, persona non-grata. If she thinks that she is ” the one” and that someday she will just wake and decide to come to Malawi and expect a thunderous welcome then she is taking Malawians for granted. We have long moved on. Joyce Banda is full of herself and I hope one of her five kids and her sisters will read this and put some sense into this woman, because she is delusional. Malawians we are looking at young, progressive leaders that will… Read more »
For Malawi to develop, to lose its dependence on donors, 2 things MUST change: the population must stop voting on a tribal / party allegiance basis and start choosing the candidate with the best manifesto. Secondly, the aspiring leaders must have Malawi’s best interests at heart, not their own power or lining their own pockets. Until these things happen, Malawi will slide deeper into poverty.
Madam former President Dr Joyce Banda, I feel your time to rule Malawians is over & i agree 100% with the commentators, the current terrain is not conducive for you. The 2 year term of your leadership was marred with a beautiful mirage oh what a missed opportunity. Madam former president cash gate happened under your watch with a smoke screen similar to the current administration (a den of thugs ) harboring the status quo. The two faced politicians with Philanthropy tendencies at the same time faking the funk is what costed Hillary Clinton campaign period & Madam former president,… Read more »
The analyst akuti…You see, the problem with most Malawians [who happen to be outside Malawi (by whatever chance)] is thinking that everybody is missing them; when truth is, they are the ones missing Malawi.
. . . Now, let someone tell this JB that no any sane/sensible person misses her. -kkkkkkkk
One thing we’re forgetting is that Joyce Banda was never elected as the Malawi president.
JB if you really love yourself you better stay wherever you are,if you decide to come back you better understand this,you
won’t survive in a police cell or maula,just a day or some few hours your Bp will shoot and you know the consequences……ndale za pa Malawi nzothana you had everything when you were in power ukanayambe ndiwe kumutha uyu mmati ndani uyu
People, do not forget that it was JB who ended the fuel scarcity that had been created by Bingu. She also restored many strained diplomatic relations e.g.wit huh the UK. The political analyst at Chancellor College does not k ow what he is talking about. In politics dk not file out someone like JB. She has a lot of followers in Malawi.
Kodi akumulimbitsa Mtima ndani, we dne with women ruling us….
The political landscape of Malawi is characterized by lack of appropriate president who can do the right things in favour of Malawians. It doesn’t matter whether these right things originate with Azungu or Chinese. If they’re the right things, they’ll remain so and nobody’ll change them. The present leadership hates Malawi by doing things that inflict economic misery on Malawians. Foremost of these is failure to root out corruption and mismanagement/misappropriation of public resources. This has not only chased donors away but has also eroded the country’s financial strength. The country has consequently reverted to an economic paralysis that epitomized… Read more »
Hahaha Mr Kayuni and the Analyst just shut up you dont know what you are talking about. Compared to APM and Chakwera better JB. Without vote stealing APM is no match for JB. Cashgate has nothing to do with JB. Today with JB not in Malawi we are still stealing without shame. Every Senior civil servant know that Cashgate was planned and successfully executed by Bingu with the help of Mwanavekha and Dr Daliso Kabambe.
How many Malawians know that the Malawi police did not lose MK400 million but MK4 billion?