Malawi has no government—MCP

Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) says the country is facing a leadership crisis that effectively means there is no government at the moment.
But government spokesperson Brown Mpinganjira has accused MCP of being desperate and clinging to issues that have been exhausted.
MCP vice-president Richard Msowoya told a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Lilongwe on Friday that the People’s Party (PP) government has cheated Malawians on many issues.
“They [PP] first told us that they used the [presidential] jet proceeds to buy maize; now they are saying they used the money to buy military equipment. The big question is: who authorised this? Because we know that every transaction done from the Consolidated Fund has to be approved by Parliament and Parliament has never met to discuss the issue, so who authorised this?” said Msowoya.
He said government should produce evidence in the form of invoices to substantiate its claims that the money was used to buy military equipment for the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Msowoya also said the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is dragging its feet on allegations that PP is enticing voters to sell their voter registration cards.
He said there is ‘overwhelming’ evidence that PP is behind the scheme.
But PP deputy spokesperson Ken Msonda yesterday disassociated his party from the crime, arguing that there is no evidence linking the party to the malpractice.
“The party cannot do anything except through its members and MCP has fallen short of identifying the person [s] alleged to have been involved in the buying of voter registration certificates.
“We would like to remind MCP once again that if it has any evidence substantiating their allegations in a democratic system of governance, they should report the matter either to police or the Malawi Electoral Commission,” said Msonda in a statement.
MEC spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said the electoral body is investigating the allegations.
“We are working with the police to investigate these issues. You will be hearing from us,” said Mwafulirwa. n