JB wont quit, to lead PP until 2019

Former Malawi president Joyce Banda has told People’s Party (PP) top officials and legislators that she will continue leading the party and help to rebuild it to face the 2019 elections as a formidable force, Nation On Sunday has learnt.

However, Banda, who came third in the May 20 presidential race, has not clarified if she plans to appear on a presidential ballot paper again, according to the party’s acting secretary general Paul Maulidi.

Maulidi said the former president, after her humiliating loss, has held some meetings with PP executive members and some of the party’s legislators at her home in Nkhata Bay where she relocated after vacating Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.

He said: “She has met some of us and some of our MPs [Members of Parliament] and expressly told us her interest to continue leading the party. She has encouraged us to work hard in rebuilding the party to enable us face the 2019 elections as a strong party.

“But I cannot talk of whether she is going to contest for the presidency in 2019 or not, she has not hinted on that. She has only said she is going to run the party. We are all interested in rebuilding the party; we know the party is still strong.”

Maulidi said Banda’s base of operation in rebuilding the party would be in Lilongwe and she was only waiting from President Peter Mutharika’s administration to find her a home, which is her entitlement as an ex-Malawi leader.

Asked if Banda’s statement when she controversially, as President of Malawi then, nullified elections on May 24 citing electoral fraud and that she was not going to stand in elections she wanted held within 90 days meant that she would not be interested to contest again as a presidential candidate, Maulidi said that statement was made in a particular context.

He said Banda made that statement to pacify a situation that was getting out of hand.

Maulidi said: “There was tension that time. Scenes of violence were being reported and as a President, and backed by the law, she had to do something about it. She may have a different view after that [about the 2019 elections].”

The High Court in Blantyre reversed Banda’s decision to nullify the Tripartite Elections, which was widely condemned by law experts as illegal.

Consequently, after steamy court battles, Mutharika, who led the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was declared winner on May 31 by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).

Commenting on Banda’s PP leadership stance, Dr. Boniface Dulani, a political scientist at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College, said although Malawians spoke that they did not trust Banda’s leadership skills on elections day, it does not stop her from running the party or considering contesting in 2019 polls.

He said for leadership and funding purposes, it was imperative for Banda to continue leading the party because dumping it now would create room for infighting as senior members reposition themselves for the top seat.

Dulani said: “Leading the party and considering standing as a presidential candidate are two different things. She may run the party and decide not to contest.

“And losing an election may not necessarily mean she cannot do well if she decides to contest, it may depend on the performance of the current administration and presidential candidates that may come on the scene.”

Dulani gave an example of Benin’s long-serving president Mathieu Kerekou who, after losing an election and standing down in 1991, won a free and fair presidential ballot in 1996 and proceeded to win a second term in 2001.

Banda, an estranged vice-president during the DPP administration under the leadership of the late Bingu wa Mutharika, ascended to power following constitutional order after Mutharika’s death on April 5 2012.

Backed by some former members of the DPP, she had prior to becoming president, formed her PP and led the party to contest the May 2014 polls, her first election.

But the party performed badly, securing only 26 parliamentary seats, with her falling by the wayside in the presidential race.

The DPP, which was out of power for two years, returned to Capital Hill after edging out Malawi Congress Party’s (MCP) presidential candidate, Lazarus Chakwera, who came second.