DPP withdraws Chaponda as Leader of Opposition
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has withdrawn the election of Mulanje South West legislator George Chaponda to replace its vice-president (South) Kondwani Nankhumwa as Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP).
The party, led by its legal director Charles Mhango and organising secretary Chimwemwe Chipungu made the pronouncement as the matter went for mediation before Justice Kenyatta Nyirenda of the High Court in Lilongwe on Friday.
After the election of Chaponda on June 26 2022 at Page House in Mangochi, some 22 DPP legislators, led by Welani Chilenga of Chitipa South, obtained an injunction restraining Chaponda from acting in that capacity, a matter which then went for mediation on Friday.
Lawyer for the 22 legislators, Wapona Kita, said the proposal to have the matter withdrawn came from the DPP, and they were happy with the outcome of the mediation, as they got what they had been praying for.
Said Kita: “Being mediation, it was for the two parties to talk, and they did. So, counsel Charles Mhango and Chipungu told the court that the party was withdrawing its June 26 decision made at Page House and that they no longer have in mind Chaponda as LoP.
“In other words, they consider that they were wrong in doing what they did. Being the Claimant, we cannot say no to that because we went to court to have that election nullified. We are happy that parties have talked and we hope that the differences have been resolved.”
Counsel Chimwemwe Sikwese, who represented the DPP in the case confirmed the withdrawal of the resolution to have Chaponda as LoP.
He said: “From the Defendant’s side [DPP], having considered the matter, decided to withdraw the resolution which was made of removing Hon. Nankhumwa as LoP and replacing him with Hon. Chaponda.”
On his part, Mhango conceded that the party had noticed that it secluded other legislators in electing Chaponda, hence the decision to withdraw the June 26 resolution.
He said: “Those who went to court complained that they were not invited, and they were not involved in that election. So, for the sake of unity and peace in DPP, for us to have all DPP MPS rally behind one person, we have resolved to accept that our colleagues were not involved.
“So, we will go back to the drawing board, and we will involve every member who was elected on the DPP ticket to participate and choose their preferred person to be LoP, and that’s what we are going to do.”
But Kita said the DPP wanted to add a resolution of going back to vote during the mediation, which his clients did not agree with.
Added Kita: “To be frank with you, what the party was saying is that they may have to restart the whole process and wanted that to be part of the mediation talk, but we insisted that we came to court to nullify the decision of June 26.
“So, we told the court that we should restrict ourselves to the matter at hand and agreed that we should just leave it there. As we are concerned, we have gotten what we wanted and our friends have conceded to what we were saying that they got it wrong. Other issues will be dealt with accordingly.” Cracks in the former governing DPP came to light after embattled secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey in August 2020 told The Nation that Mutharika, who lost the June 23 2020 court-sanctioned presidential election to President Lazarus Chakwera, had done his part and that the party needed a new person to lead it into the future. Peter Mutharika took over leadership of DPP after the death of his brother, Bingu wa Mutharika in April 2012.
