UDF to hold convention in July

Former governing United Democratic Front (UDF) says it will hold its elective convention in July this year ahead of the September 2025 General Elections.

UDF president Lillian Patel, who said she will not contest at the convention, said this in an interview on Saturday evening at the end of the party’s day-long National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

The meeting was held at the party’s new office in New Naperi residential estate in Blantyre and, according to Patel, the convention will be held in Blantyre.

She said: “We agreed that we hold our convention in the month of July.  But, we have left the date for the [convention] committee to bring to us.”

According to Patel, an 11-member convention committee will be chaired by Second Deputy Speaker Aisha Mambo Adams.

She said during the NEC meeting, the party also resolved to renew its structures through regional elections for each member to renew their mandate.

According to Patel, the regional elections will be held prior to the elective convention and the party’s secretary general Kandi Padambo has been given a mandate to handle them.

The party’s national organising secretary will, thereafter, scrutinise delegates emanating from the regions and districts, including one member each from constituencies.

During the meeting, UDF also deliberated on reports from Patel, the secretary general and treasurer general’s offices on what the party has done and how it has fared so far.

This is aside from deliberating on reports from its regions on how they have been performing as well as women’s and youth wings where a number of issues were also agreed.

On the youth and women’s wings, the party agreed that the first three positions of both wings should be voted for at the party’s convention while the rest should be chosen by themselves.

But when asked what has compelled her decision not to contest at the convention, Patel said she is not available.

“I will not stand although people are not happy with that decision. I am not available for that position.

“I think I’ve played my part in that role and that’s it for me. That’s a personal decision,” she said.

Patel said she wants to serve the party as an ordinary member; hence, said she is not interested in any position in the party.

She took over the party’s leadership following the resignation of former president Atupele Muluzi on May 30 2022.

At the time of his resignation, Atupele, who is son to the party’s founding president and the country’s first post-single party president Bakili Muluzi, said he wants to transition into a pan-African business executive.

UDF was the first political party to form a government after Malawi attained multiparty democracy in the early 1990s.