Concerned UDF followers want NEC dissolved

People calling themselves Concerned United Democratic Front (UDF) Supporters have given the party’s national executive committee (NEC) 30 days to resign and pave the way for an interim committee.

Speaking in an interview in Blantyre yesterday, a representative of the group, Rafik Joshi, said the supporters are disappointed with what is happening in Parliament where 11 of UDF’s 14 members of Parliament have moved to the government side without consulting the membership.

Said Joshi: “To show our dissatisfaction with what has happened, we are giving the national executive committee 30 days from the day the members of Parliament relocated to the government benches for them to give up power. A letter stating our reasons for the call will be sent to the party’s secretary general [Kandi Padambo], [former national chairperson] Bakili Muluzi and to Parliament.”

He said the supporters believe that the MPs could have continued to sit on the opposition benches where Balaka North MP Lucius Banda is and still support government.

Joshi said the interim committee to take over from NEC will operate until the party goes to a convention to elect new leaders who will lead them “without watching MPs going astray”.

Added Joshi: “We will also write the Speaker of Parliament [Richard Msowoya] to implement Section 65 [of the Constitution] in this aspect. We feel the MPs who have started sitting on the government benches have crossed the floor and the Constitution needs to function.”

But in an interview yesterday, UDF publicity secretary Ken Ndanga said the party will issue a statement today regarding its position following the movement of MPs to government side and the insistence of the party’s leader in Parliament, Banda, to remain on the opposition side.

On the calls by the concerned supporters, Ndanga said the party’s members know where UDF offices are as well as the right channels to use when they have an issue that needs to be addressed by the leadership.

The UDF has 11 MPs seated on the government side, which has increased the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) numerical strength in the 193-member National Assembly to 63.

The three MPs not affected by the move are Banda, party president and Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Atupele Muluzi as well as Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Clement Chiwaya.

Following the relocation, UDF woke up to the reality of its decision last Thursday when it missed on the schedule of opposition political parties to respond to the State of the Nation Address, which President Peter Mutharika delivered on May 5 2015. n