Joyce Banda to contests in 2019 elections
Nearly two months after her return from self-imposed exile, former president Joyce Banda on Sunday declared her interest to contest in next year’s tripartite elections.
But despite making her ambitions known, Banda stressed that her People’s Party (PP) members would have to decide during their national convention on whether she should be the party’s torchbearer in the 2019 elections.
But a political analyst has cautioned that while Banda has a democratic right to contest for the presidential race, her chances to triumph are very thin.
Addressing a public rally in Blantyre, Banda, who reigned from 2012 to 2014, said PP belonged to the people and it was imperative that the same people give her a fresh mandate to represent them in 2019.
She said: “The People’s Party belongs to ordinary people. I cannot nominate myself and declare that I will contest during the elections. You, the voters, owners of the party will have to decide during the convention who to represent you. But let me tell you that I am also contesting at our convention.”
On her return home on April 28 2018 through Chileka Airport in Blantyre, Banda did not immediately define her political future, rather she argued that she needed to study the political landscape first.
But addressing thousands of her party supporters, who swarmed Nyambadwe Primary School ground in Blantyre on Sunday, the former president said she had held 14 meetings to consult PP leaders, family members and other individuals before coming up with her decision.
“I promise that even if you elect a different person, I shall never dump the People’s Party. I will closely toil with the person entrusted to run our affairs. Nevertheless, let me also assure you of my very best should you vote for me,” said the PP leader.
But with 11 months to go before the decisive elections, a University of Malawi (Unima) political scientist Ernest Thindwa said Banda’s coming does not pose any serious threat to the incumbent President Peter Mutharika.
“If she stands, in my view, her chances to win are very slim. The real competition is between the MCP [Malawi Congress Party] and DPP [Democratic Progressive Party].
“However, her coming in will certainly injure the DPP more than MCP. In fact, MCP should be excited that Banda is contesting because she will certainly claim some significant votes in the Eastern Region and that is likely to eat into the DPP stronghold,” he said.
Thindwa’s assertion echoes what another political and governance expert Henry Chingaipe told The Nation days before Banda’s return that if she was coming to contest for presidency, it was a sign that she was being misled.
He said: “Her party is in tatters. The decision to leave the country for so long eroded trust of Malawians in her leadership.”
Banda became president in April 2012 as a constitutional requirement after the death of then president Bingu wa Mutharika.
In the 2014 Tripartite Elections, she came third behind MCP’s Lazarus Chakwera and left the country immediately after Mutharika was sworn in May 2014.
Despite some good strides she made, her tenure was characterised by the plunder of public resources in government known as Cashgate.
During yesterday’s Blantyre rally, Banda also attacked the DPP administration for duplicating developmental projects she initiated while in office.
Citing a water project in Dowa and the Lirangwe-Chingale-Machinga Road construction project, Banda wondered why the DPP administration was wasting public funds in laying foundation stones which she had already done.
