AS fighting continues in the opposition Alliance for Democracy (Aford), unknown thugs over the weekend morning attacked deputy district chairperson of the party in Rumphi, Newton Harawa.
\nSpeaking from his hospital bed on Sunday, Harawa said he suspects the assailants are Aford president Chakufwa Chihana\u2019s sympathisers because during the attack, they accused him of supporting Karonga Central Constituency lawmaker Frank Mwenifumbo.
\nThere have been cracks in Aford of late following Mwenifumbo\u2019s announcement to challenge Chihana for the party presidency at the party\u2019s convention.
\nThe attack on Harawa comes few days after two of Chihana\u2019s aides were arrested for assault and penalised by the court in Lilongwe after being found guilty of assaulting party general secretary Christopher Ritchie.
\n\u201cI was on the way to my business place at Lura Trading Centre, when I saw a half-tonne pick-up coming in front of me. About eight people alighted from it and started attacking me with rods while asking why I am rallying behind Mwenifumbo,\u201d said Harawa in a telephone interview.
\nHarawa, few days ago, was among some of Aford officials who petitioned Chihana, protesting postponement of the party\u2019s elective convention from December this year to April 2018.
\n\u201cI am being punished for standing by the constitution [of the party]. The mandate of the current National Executive Committee (Nec) expired in September, and it is only democratic for us to go to a convention,\u201d Harawa said.
\nMeanwhile, the matter has been reported to Rumphi Police and Harawa is admitted to Livingstonia Mission Hospital.
\nWhen contacted, Chihana could not pick his mobile after several attempts but speaking to a community radio in Karonga over the weekend, he accused Harawa of staging the attack.
\nAford National Campaign Director, Bowoyeke Munthali, defended Chihana in a separate interview and accused Mwenifumbo and Dan Msowoya of bringing confusion to the party.
\n\u201cThese are the very people who revolted against Chakufwa [Chihana], they have neither respect for rule of law nor party leadership. They do not wish the party well,\u201d he said.
\nBut Mwenifumbo yesterday said nothing would stop him from contesting for the party\u2019s presidency, saying it is his constitutional right.
\nCommenting on developments in Aford recently, political analyst Joseph Chunga said Aford remains a weak party as evidenced by opinion in surveys and election results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AS fighting continues in the opposition Alliance for Democracy (Aford), unknown thugs over the weekend morning attacked deputy district chairperson of the party in Rumphi, Newton Harawa. Speaking from his hospital bed on Sunday, Harawa said he suspects the assailants are Aford president Chakufwa Chihana\u2019s sympathisers because during the attack, they accused him of supporting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57194","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\/57194","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=57194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57201,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57194\/revisions\/57201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}