DPP’s Themba falls in primaries

Incumbent legislator for Blantyre City Central Themba Mkandawire lost in the ongoing governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primaries to Chipiliro Mpinganjira on Friday.

DPP’s national director of logistics Symon Vuwa Kaunda, who is one of the officials overseeing the primaries, confirmed about Mkandawire’s loss in an interview yesterday.

“Yes, Mkandawire wavulala [he has lost],” said Kaunda who was in Chikwawa conducting another primary election in Chikwawa Central where an incumbent is Zaheer Gaffar Issa.

Kaunda said in Ndirande Malabada, the incumbent legislator Aaron Sangala trounced his opponents to book himself a ticket to run again on DPP’s ticket.

He said in Blantyre City West, incumbent DPP legislator Trasizio Gowelo floored a one-time MP for the constituency Bertha Masiku.

In Nkhotakota North East, where incumbent is Martha Lunji, the DPP delayed to declare a winner because of scuffles between rival supporters.

Lunji faced Evance Bwanaope—a trained journalist—in a primary election which only happened in three of the four planned DPP’s electoral colleges.

Presiding officer Oscar Taulo said the election was discontinued after noticing heightened tension between rival supporters, saying the party’s secretariat would make its determination on the outcome and declare the winner.

“We’re not nullifying the election, we’re not cancelling the election and we’re not saying the votes didn’t count. There were some unruly elements; hence we decided to discontinue as well as delay the results,” Taulo said.

But Lunji, who previously served the constituency between 2004 and 2009, said the unofficial results showed that she had won the primaries, saying there were long queues behind her, adding that she was waiting for the DPP secretariat to release the final results.

But when contacted for comment, Bwanaope denied that his supporters were behind the scuffles that led to the discontinuance of the election.