DPP to conduct re-run of primaries
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice-president for the South Kondwani Nankhumwa says the governing party will conduct a re-run of primary elections in selected constituencies whose results were disputed.
He said the re-runs will be held by Wednesday next week.
The development follows Nankhumwa’s meeting with some concerned aspiring candidates at the party’s regional office at Sunnyside in Blantyre yesterday.
During the meeting, Nankhumwa, who is also Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, acknowledged the primaries were marred by challenges in some constituencies.
He assured the group that the party will address their concerns by holding a re-run of the primaries.
According to Nankhumwa, some of the challenges were due to, among other issues, corruption involving some presiding officers and the imposing of candidates by some party officials.
He said: “We are stocking to see what exactly happened and at the end of that audit we will set a date, preferably next week, to conduct the primaries in those affected constituencies.”
Among some of the constituencies where irregularities were registered are Mulanje North, Nsanje Lalanje, Thyolo South West, Chiradzulu East and Blantyre City West.
Last week, some disgruntled Blantyre City West DPP members marched to the party’s Southern Regional office to present a petition, disputing results of primaries in their area where presiding officers had declared incumbent legislator Tarsizius Gowelo the winner.
The group presented a petition to Nankhumwa, party secretary general Greselder Jeffrey and Southern Region governor Charles Mchacha.
In Chiradzulu East, where incumbent Henry Mussa was declared winner, his challenger Joseph Nomale also disputed the result and demanded justice from the party.
In an interview yesterday, Nomale said: “I believe my issue will be handled differently because I wrote the party to declare me winner. I do not think we need a re-run in my constituency. If the rules of the game are to be followed, my issue was simple and straightforward.”
Mussa, who is also Minister of Information and Communications Technology, yesterday did not answer our calls on numerous attempts but in an earlier interview, he maintained that he won the primaries in a fair manner.
Earlier, Chancellor College-based political analyst Earnest Thindwa said the differences in the party primaries indicated that some candidates are being imposed in the elections.
