Lunguzi misses MCP ticket
Incumbent Dedza East legislator Juliana Lunguzi will not represent Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the parliamentary race in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections following her narrow loss in primaries held yesterday.
Despite indications suggesting that Lunguzi, the first-term legislator in the constituency, was poised for victory as evidenced by the longer queue behind her, presiding officer Peter Chalera declared her challenger, Patrick Bandawe, as the winner with 821.
He said Lunguzi amassed 815 during primaries at Mankhamba Primary School.
During the voting, which is determined by the number of people physically behind an aspirant, Lunguzi had three long queues against Bandawe’s two.
Lunguzi, who recently fell out of favour with some sections of the leadership of the country’s oldest party, was seen celebrating with her supporters before Chalera finished counting her third line.
However, the celebration turned out to be premature as Chalera, who took about six minutes to count Bandawe’s voters against 10 minutes and 20 seconds for Lunguzi’s, said Lunguzi had lost by six votes.
Announcement of the results delayed by about 10 minutes as supporters of both Bandawe and Lunguzi swarmed Chalera and police officers who replaced Lunguzi’s hired security personnel.
The results confirmed earlier fears by some quarters that Lunguzi was not the party’s preferred candidate.
50:50 Campaign Management Agency team leader Viwemi Chavula, who was among independent monitors of the primaries, said he was shocked with the manner the counting was done.
He said: “After 54 years of independence, we should have improved on how this can be conducted. However, we commend the peaceful elections, but there is need for an improvement on how counting is done.”
Lunguzi did not pick our calls after several attempts, but a person who answered at one point and identified himself as Chinkhota, said she would ask the legislator to return our call. However, by press time she had not called back.
University of Livingstonia (Unilia) political scientist George Phiri described the conduct of the primaries, which had failed on two previous occasions, as pathetic.
He warned that MCP could be plotting its downfall if voters feel it was manipulating primary election results. He cited the case of Nancy Tembo in Lilongwe City Centre constituency and controversies in Salima North West where incumbent Jessie Kabwila is also facing some resistance.
Writing on his Facebook page, MCP director of youth Richard Chimwendo Banda announced that Lunguzi won the election, contradicting the presiding officer who was on the ground.
During primaries yesterday in Dedza East, 1 890 delegates were expected to vote, but less than 1 700 voted because some delegates believed to be Lunguzi’s supporters were not ferried to the venue, according to some voters who were interviewed on the ground. The party arranged transport for the aspirants.
MCP spokesperson Maurice Munthali was not immediately available for a comment as his phone went unanswered. n
