APM, Nankhumwa factions in fresh row

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) factions are rocked in a fresh row over delegates to the former governing party’s elective convention scheduled for next year.

On Wednesday, DPP spokesperson Shadric Namalomba and newly-appointed vice-president responsible for the South George Chaponda held a news conference to dispel assertions by Mulanje Central legislator Kondwani Nankhumwa that the party intended to rope  in new delegates ahead of the party’s convention.

Their briefing came a day after Nankhumwa, who DPP president Peter Mutharika stripped of his role as vice-president responsible for the South and replaced him with Chaponda, held a press conference where he warned against changing delegates.

But Namalomba on Wednesday said the party will do a proper verification of delegates as others might have died or left the party so as to have an acceptable list of delegates to avoid being dragged to court.

He said: “We do not want him [Nankhumwa] to go to court again because he will go to court again if we do not do things properly. We know that he wants to continue to take us to court even at the time that the Malawi Electoral Commission says give us your nomination papers as DPP.

“He will go to court to stop Professor Arthur Mutharika from standing as DPP candidate… Malawians want Mutharika.”

Chaponda, who is the organising chairperson for the convention, said the party is being led by its constitution, as such, there is no room for it to remove someone from a position without following the procedures.

He said the constitution allows district, constituency and zone members to serve for two years and six months, while members of the National Governing Council serve for five years up to the convention day.

Said Chaponda: “All this shows that our 2018 constitution is intact, everyone has to know that they cannot just be fired as others are saying, that cannot happen.” 

Other DPP officials present at the convention were regional governor for the South Charles Mchacha, regional governor for the East Imran Mtenje and director of women Mary Navicha who said they were confident the party would win in the 2025 elections.

Nankhumwa, who is Leader of Opposition in Parliament and was recently appointed presidential adviser to Mutharika, alleged that a circle within the DPP wants to benefit from new delegates.

He said: “This is not the time to tamper with structures. These people have hidden motives. After all, an earlier court ruling stated that the same delegates should vote. Let the convention be held now.”

Nankhumwa’s sentiments come against the background of the party’s decision to plead with the courts to extend the  time for the party to hold a convention on the basis that there are no delegates as their tenure had expired.

The court ruled in favour of the party, a development that made it possible to shift the convention from December 26 and 27 2023 to next year.

Infighting in the DPP was ignited in 2020 by the newly-appointed vice-president (Central) Grezelder Jeffrey, who said Mutharika has done his part and that the party needs a new leader.

Subsequently, she called for a convention where new leadership would be ushered in.

However, this did not go down well with the party which later fired Nankhumwa, Jeffrey, treasurer general Jappie Mhango, who has now replaced the late Goodall Gondwe as DPP’s vice-president (North), and Mulanje West legislator Yusuf Nthenda. They were later reinstated after a series of court battles.