After a long anxious wait, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Electoral Committee has \u00a0endorsed the candidacy of incumbent Walter Nyamilandu and Wilkins Mijiga, while disqualifying Willy Yabwanya Phiri from the December 12 presidential race.<\/p>\n
Phiri has since challenged the decision which the committee, chaired by Justice Dingiswayo Madise, made at Chiwembe Technical Centre in Blantyre on Saturday when scrutinising the nominations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a conspiracy theory. They wanted us to write a mini-football profile and I indicated my address as Box 97, Karonga. To my surprise, they have based their decision on my temporary residence address in Canada. I am a temporary worker in Canada and my work permit indicates that,\u201d Phiri said in a telephone interview from Canada yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make matters worse, they \u00a0have not communicated to me, but the media. I suspect they want the appeal window period to expire. They know I am a strong candidate. I have done more development of Malawi football than Walter and Mijiga combined. I will definitely appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Karonga United owner, who insisted that he would relocate to Malawi to serve Malawi football, said while he has no issues with the Justice Madise-led committee, he suspects that the presence of Suzgo Nyirenda in the committee compromised the process.<\/p>\n
Nyirenda yesterday dismissed Phiri\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never part of the screening and I have sent this press release because I have the media addresses. Please ask the chairman and he will verify. Please let me not be thrown into any mud. At the end of the day, I do my work professionally. Whoever is complaining should do so to the chairman. I was never part of the meeting,\u201d Nyirenda said yesterday.<\/p>\n
A press release signed by Madise and released by Nyirenda\u2019s office, states that Phiri was disqualified because he does not meet the pre-condition of Article 34.2 of Fam\u2019s statutes which states that candidates must have residence within the territory of Fam to be eligible for the polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWilly Yabwanya Phiri is not resident within the territory of Fam as he is resident in Canada. Specifically, his address of residence is 1891 Foy Street, Abbotsford, V2t 6b1, Canada,\u201d reads the press release.<\/p>\n
The electoral committee also disqualified Hubert Mfune\u2019s nomination due to his alleged failure to prove his academic qualifications, which is contrary to Article 34.2 of Fam statutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor one to be eligible to be a member of the Executive Committee of Fam, they must have a minimum academic qualification of MSCE or its equivalent. Hubert Mfune did not provide any proof of attainment of MSCE or its equivalent or a higher qualification,\u201d reads the statement.<\/p>\n
Aspirant for the position of vice-president, Paul Mzungu, was also disqualified for failure to submit his profile.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026as such the Electoral Committee did not have any information regarding him and subsequently, did not have proof that he is\/was eligible to be a candidate,\u201d the electoral committee determined.<\/p>\n
The full list of candidates that have been approved to compete during the December 12 polls in Salima is as follows: Executive members: Alfred Gunda, Jabbar Alide, Rashid Ntelela, Daud Mtanthiko, Flora Mwandira and Masauko Medi. President: Nyamilandu and Mijiga. First vice-president: James Mwenda and Tiyanjane Somba-Banda. Second vice-president: Pikawo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a long anxious wait, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Electoral Committee has \u00a0endorsed the candidacy of incumbent Walter Nyamilandu and Wilkins Mijiga, while disqualifying Willy Yabwanya Phiri from the December 12 presidential race. Phiri has since challenged the decision which the committee, chaired by Justice Dingiswayo Madise, made at Chiwembe Technical Centre in Blantyre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12074,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12069\/revisions\/12074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}