The opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has played down calls by some disgruntled chairpersons for an emergency convention to address administrative issues reportedly rocking the party.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a press briefing in Lilongwe on Monday, MCP Public Relations Officer, Alekeni Menyani, reiterated that the chairpersons are doing so as a ploy to delay impending elections.<\/p>\n
\u201c[MCP president Lazarus] Chakwera is not operating outside his mandate and legitimacy; otherwise, it is the chairpersons who are doing so because they have been holding their positions for too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why we will be holding elections in all regions so that we have new office-bearers so that they seek new mandate. These people are doing so because of fear for the impending regional elections. They should just be preparing for the elections and we are waiting for their nomination papers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a letter dated January 9, 2016, the chairpersons, among other things, accused Chakwera of nepotistic tendencies.<\/p>\n
They also claim that Chakwera gave more powers to members of Parliament (MPs), thereby disrespecting district and regional structures.<\/p>\n
But Menyani, who was flanked by Jean Sendeza (Director of Political Affairs), Eisenhower Mkaka (Deputy Secretary General), Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi, (Deputy Campaign Director ) and Manase Chiumia (District Chairperson for Nkhata Bay), dismissed such accusations, saying there is no MP who has been given more powers in the party at the expense of established structures<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one elected during the convention has been fired by Right Honourable Chakwera, rather what happened is that he only reshuffled some positions based on individual capabilities. If there is anyone who is going against the party\u2019s statutes, it is them for their prolonged stay on their positions. Regional chairpersons\u2019 elections were last held in 1992 and the next elections were supposed to have taken place in 1995,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On nepotism accusations, Menyani said it would be folly for the party to overlook special abilities and expertise in certain individuals simply because they are related to Chakwera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen appointing such people, the president considered their competencies and looked at their prospective contributions to the party,\u201d said Menyani.<\/p>\n
He stated that the party is aware that the chairpersons have been sent by \u201cother frustrated people\u201d as a front.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet those officials not hide behind innocent chairpersons, rather they should come and present their issues at a roundtable. People should not abuse the openness that Chakwera has accorded them and it\u2019s important to exercise prudence and maturity in the way we handle matters affecting him,\u201d said Menyani.<\/p>\n
He did not, however, name the \u201cfrustrated people\u201d who are using the regional chairpersons.<\/p>\n
According to the MCP constitution, half of the 42 district committees or two thirds of Nec members can call for a convention.<\/p>\n
MCP is scheduled to conduct regional elections for chairpersons on January 30 this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has played down calls by some disgruntled chairpersons for an emergency convention to address administrative issues reportedly rocking the party. Speaking during a press briefing in Lilongwe on Monday, MCP Public Relations Officer, Alekeni Menyani, reiterated that the chairpersons are doing so as a ploy to delay impending elections. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16818","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\/16818","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=16818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16822,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16818\/revisions\/16822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}