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Pressure group tells voters to take advantage of by-elections

 

Pressure group Transformation Alliance (TA) has asked voters in tomorrow’s by-elections to use the opportunity availed to them to transform the country’s governance setup.

TA said this in a statement ahead of by-elections in three constituencies of Lilongwe Msozi North, Lilongwe City South East and Nsanje Lalanje; and three wards of Mtsiliza in Lilongwe, Mayani North in Dedza and Ndirande Makata in Blantyre.

Kunkuyu: There should be cleansing

TA chairperson Moses Kunkuyu said in a statement that an election provides an opportunity for citizens to fulfil so many aspirations, including taking away power from the political “elite”.

He said: “After all is said and done, TA believes the central objective of the transformative politics that we need should be a massive cleansing and radical redistribution of power; from political leaders to citizens, from the Executive arm of government to Parliament, from the city council to local communities.

“Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability, we must take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the village and an election is an opportunity to fulfil such aspirations.”

Kunkuyu also said it is disheartening to note that excessive power has led to Malawians being impoverished since the country attained its independence in 1964 with visible examples being cases where children still learn under trees, hospitals operating without drugs, people drinking unsafe water even in urban dwellings and a sluggish economy due to poor industry performance and low foreign direct investments.

In an earlier interview with The Nation, associate professor of political and administrative studies at Chancellor College (Chanco), Happy Kayuni, said the by-elections are important as they are a way of projecting political mood as the country is fast approaching 2019.

He said the by-elections will determine whether particular political parties are popular or they need to re-strategise or make some changes. n

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