The United Democratic Front (UDF) says it is ready to form an electoral alliance with any political party in the run-up to the 2014 tripartite election on condition that Atupele Muluzi, the party’s president, will be the presidential candidate.
The party’s national organising secretary, Lillian Patel, said this on Monday in an interview after addressing a political rally at Nsanje Boma.
Patel was in the Lower Shire in readiness for Atupele’s whistle-stop tour slated for this Sunday.
“The message is clear, it is not from me, but from the people we are consulting. So, the party’s stand is that any political party willing to share a political bed with us, should be willing to take Atupele as a presidential candidate.
“You may wish to know that this alliance should also be only at national level. We are not going to tolerate alliances at branch, area, constituency, district or regional levels,” she said.
During her speech, Patel also took a swipe at other political parties who say Atupele is ineligible to rule because he is a political novice and that the country is not a monarchy since his father, Bakili Muluzi, already ruled the country.
“Atupele is eligible. He will be turning 35, the constitutional age, this August; he has been voted as a parliamentarian twice and he once served as a minister, is that person a toddler? On the issue of dynasty, that is not true.
“Atupele was democratically voted as a presidential hopeful at a convention. After all, he is not going to be the first in Africa and beyond,” she said.
“There is Joseph Kabila in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ian Khama of Botswana and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, all these are presidents today and their fathers once ruled their respective countries.
