{"id":66549,"date":"2018-06-08T11:54:31","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T09:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=66549"},"modified":"2018-06-08T11:54:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T09:54:32","slug":"some-chilima-movement-members-to-leave-dpp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/06\/08\/some-chilima-movement-members-to-leave-dpp\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Chilima Movement members to leave DPP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some members of Chilima Movement in the Northern Region have said they are ready to leave the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in support of any decision Vice-President Saulos Chilima will make on his political future.<\/p>\n

Chilima on Wednesday held a press conference in Lilongwe, where he announced that he would not contest for any position at DPP\u2019s elective convention this month.<\/p>\n

Instead, he announced that he would, in due course, be following due procedures of leaving the party.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Chilima Movement leaders who stormed Times Group offices in Mzuzu City said they have received overwhelming support from people who are behind Chilima\u2019s decision to quit DPP.<\/p>\n

The movement\u2019s Northern Reg ion sec r e t ary, Pete r Mkandawire, said people are happy with Chilima\u2019s decision of not contesting for any position, let alone challenging party leader President Peter Mutharika, at the convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are saying wherever Chilima will go, they will follow him. They say whether he will form his own political party, they will support him. Even if he decides to support some parties, come elections\u2019 day, they will still stand by his decision. This is so because they love the calibre of his leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people have all the reasons to celebrate because they have hope that Chilima will be on the ballot paper come 2019 elections. People are also happy because they have been made to understand that Chilima recognises [people behind] the movement,\u201d Mkandawire said.<\/p>\n

Regional coordinator, Afiki Mbewe, said in a separate interview that their aim is to ensure that Chilima is voted into power to lead the country from May 21 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing mature politics. We are not waiting for the next move of our leader, but [what we are doing is] to continue selling his name in rural areas. We are targeting all political parties and we are sure he will be voted into power come the day of elections,\u201d Mbewe said.<\/p>\n

Chilima told journalists at the briefing said he is leaving the party so that he should not be seen to be causing confusion.<\/p>\n

The Vice-President did not rule out the possibility of remaining in politics after leaving DPP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill I contest in [next year\u2019s presidential election] or will I support another candidate? I will explain what I will do next later,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Former first lady Callista Mutharika was the first to publicly endorse Chilima to be the DPP presidential candidate before other prominent DPP members added their voice to the debate. They eventually formed what is now called the Chilima Movement.<\/p>\n

Some of the people in the movement are DPP director of women Patricia Kaliati, director of youth Louis Ngalande, director of logistics Ben Chidyaonga and national organising secretary Richard Makondi.<\/p>\n

Members of Parliament Allan Ngumuya, Bon Kalindo, Malison Ndau, Joseph Chidanti-Malunga and Paul Chibingu are other members of the movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some members of Chilima Movement in the Northern Region have said they are ready to leave the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in support of any decision Vice-President Saulos Chilima will make on his political future. Chilima on Wednesday held a press conference in Lilongwe, where he announced that he would not contest for any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":64760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66549","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\/66549","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=66549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66551,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66549\/revisions\/66551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}