Democratic Progressive Party chaos persists
Chaos ensues in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey has called for a national governing council (NGC) meeting on December 6, but the party’s spokesperson Shadric Namalomba has rubbished the decision.
During a media briefing in Lilongwe on Friday, Jeffrey said her decision to strategise for the party’s convention was in keeping with the September 29 High Court judgement by Justice Simeon Mdeza in Lilongwe, who ordered the party to hold the NGC, and convention within 90 days.
Jeffrey said she wrote party leader Peter Mutharika on two occasions owing to the fact that the period was lapsing.
She said: “Since the court judgement, we have done nothng. So, in keeping with that court ruling, and Article 10 (13) of the DPP constitution, I wrote President Mutharika on the need to respect the court ruling.
“In terms of money or the electoral college, everything is ready. In fact immediately after the court ruling, well-wishers have been contributing so that we hold this convention. I encourage more people to continue contributing.”
She said there is need to call for the NGC to strategise, like on logistics, electing a committee and chairperson for the convention.
“I wrote Professor Mutharika consulting on these issues. I hereby announce that on 6 December, we are calling for NGC members to meet, agree on the date, elect a chairperson, and everything needed. I wrote this letter on October 23, and on November 29 I also wrote him a message and invited him to the December 6 meeting.
“I wrote another letter on November 13. Letters for the convention will be distributed from today. Time has come for us to wake up and do the work. Malawians are looking up to us to help them, so we have to unite ahead of the 2025 elections.”
But Namalomba has argued that Jeffrey, being one of the claimants in the case, is conflicted to unilaterally call for the NGC meeting.
In a statement, Namalomba said Jeffrey has never consulted Mutharika to call for the meeting of the NGC as per Article 10 of the DPP constitution, as such, she has no powers to unilaterally call for the meeting.
He said during a central committee meeting on September 30, which Jeffrey attended, they agreed to appeal to the Supreme Court and apply for a stay of this judgement pending appeal, which was done.
It reads: “The DPP wishes to inform its members and the general public that the terms of office of its regional, district and constituency committees, who constitute delegates to the national political conference, expired. Furthermore, the recent new constituency boundaries across the country have affected the political structures of the DPP.
“In view of this fact, the DPP has to first conduct elections of its regional, district and constituency committees, before calling for a national political conference.”
As such, Namalomba said the DPP does not have political structures from which it can
Chithyola-Banda presents the Mid-Year Budget Statementdraw its delegates to the national political conference.
Earlier, political expert George Chaima said the chaos in DPP is a result of lack of proper guidance from the leadership.
“If you fire people out of positions because they don’t support you, it just shows that you are not democratic,” he said.
The rift in DPP became evident in August 2020 when Jeffrey declared that Mutharika had fulfilled his role and called for an early convention to appoint a new leader.
