On MCP handouts, Chithyola claims being targeted, reveals Chimwendo is also giving out money
The issue of two Ministers Zikhale Ngóma and Chithyola Banda giving out K76.5 million to delegates has taken an interesting twist with the Finance Minister claiming that he is being targeted as the media is leaving out other cabinet ministers doing the same.
On Wednesday this week, The Nation newspaper reported that Ng’oma and Banda gave out K76.5 million to North- South Region delegates in Mzuzu while on July 5, Chithyola Banda dished out K52.5 million or K500 000 to each of the 105 delegates he met at Demera Hotel in Lilongwe.
The matter has generated widespread interest with the Malawi Law Society (MLS) coming in asking the Registrar of Political Parties to take action against candidates giving cash handouts ahead of MCP national executive committee (NEC) elective convention scheduled for August.
However, Chithyola Banda has broken the silence on the matter and, in an interview on Wednesday, he accused The Nation newspaper of targeting him, claiming that other Cabinet ministers vying for posts at the MCP convention were also handing out money.
He said: “Other Cabinet ministers are giving out more than me. Have you asked [Richard] Chimwendo Banda about the same thing? Don’t you know he is giving out money?”
Interestingly, Chimwendo Banda, who is Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and also vying for the same Secretary General position as Chithyola Banda, said: “I am not aware of any candidate splashing money and I have no further comment.”
Meanwhile, MLS president Patrick Mpaka said Section Two (2) and 41 as read with Section 44 of the Political Parties Act criminalises handouts by any candidate or any political party contesting or intending to contest in an election under the law.
He has since urged the Registrar for Political Parties to take an “expansive and purposive” understanding of the Act as it relates to constitutional values of democracy.
Said Mpaka: “Otherwise that office and the law it administers will be of no use and will be bypassed by cunning politicians or it will end up protecting those that it is supposed to hold accountable on behalf of the people of Malawi”.
Interestingly, asked what his office was doing in the face of political party candidates’ handouts, Registrar of Political Parties Kizito Tenthani defended Chithyola Banda and Zikhale Ngóma saying that the Political Parties Act defines candidates as a person nominated to contest in presidential, parliamentary and local government elections.
But Mpaka said the registrar, being the first one in this office, should be interested in exploiting the law and collaborate with other entities such as the Anti-Corruption Bureau to ensure compliance at all levels and allow for political competition which thrives on merit and on issues.
He said: “Section 12(1) of the Constitution promotes transparency and accountability by saying that all political authority derives from the people of Malawi and Section 40 of the Constitution allows all to participate in the activities of political parties.
“The Registrar of Political Parties must be guided by the ultimate intention of these public officers when handing out these monies at their party level and decide whether the office ought not to be interested in.”
Mpaka said on the whole, one cannot say handouts are allowed inside the shell of a political party, but not outside, by the political party which serves as host for the insiders as all politicians end up in the same political forum designed to serve the people.
University of Cape Town law professor Danwood Chirwa concurred with MLS, saying the Political Parties Act is equally applicable to internal party politics.
In an interview on Wednesday he said as a regulator, the registrar must be promoting compliance with the law and ensuring that the law is enforced.
Said Chirwa: “The Registrar of Political Parties has no business offering defences for those that are violating the law openly and with impunity.”
He said the other concern relates to the source of the money and called on other government agencies such as the Malawi Revenue Authority and Financial Intelligence Authority to take interest in the source of funding.
“Malawi has a long standing record of looting by members of ruling parties who use the proceeds for electioneering and enriching themselves. The events that occurred are part of that unconscionable practice,” said Chirwa.
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