{"id":69014,"date":"2018-08-29T16:45:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T14:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=69014"},"modified":"2018-08-29T16:45:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T14:45:07","slug":"joyce-bandas-pp-holds-indaba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/08\/29\/joyce-bandas-pp-holds-indaba\/","title":{"rendered":"Joyce Banda&#8217;s PP holds indaba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Jameson Chauluka<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13719\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13719\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/joyce-banda-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13719\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/joyce-banda-1-300x162.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/joyce-banda-1-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/joyce-banda-1-610x332.jpg 610w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/joyce-banda-1.jpg 614w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13719\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><em>JB challenged at Indaba<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>[dropcap]T[\/dropcap]he People\u2019s Party (PP) will tomorrow hold an elective conference in Blantyre where the party\u2019s leader, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/...\/former-malawi-president-joyce-banda-returns-from-exile-\">Joyce Banda<\/a>, will be challenged by Leonard Mphidza for the party\u2019s top job<\/p>\n<p>Mphidza is the party\u2019s Deputy Secretary for the Southern Province but he doesn\u2019t pose a major threat to the former Head of State.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cAll the preparations have been completed. We are having our indaba tomorrow [today]. We are expecting over one thousand delegates some of them have already started from their homes,\u201d said Noah Chimpeni, the party spokesperson.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Banda, Malawi\u2019s first female president, lost elections to Peter Mutharika in 2014. Facing allegations of abuse of office and money laundering, which she denied, she left the country, and came back in April this year.<\/p>\n<p>Banda was living in the United States, serving as a distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Center for Global Development in Washington DC<\/p>\n<p>Last July, police issued an arrest warrant against Banda, saying her alleged offences were part of Cashgate. But early this year, the Anti-Corruption Bureau said it had no solid evidence against her, partly clearing her of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"DPSlot_container StandardArticleBody_dp-slot-inline\" data-ad-type=\"other\">\n<div id=\"dpslot_native_6846567_USKBN1HU2G8\" class=\"DPSlot_ad-container\" data-google-query-id=\"CIaxkYS-kt0CFYezUQodKNgAFA\">But since she came back, police have not publicly said whether charges had been dropped. A police spokesman said on Monday the police would make no comment on the matter until Banda was back in the country<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>PP held its last elective conference in 2013 which ushered in Joyce Banda as its leader.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"DPSlot_container StandardArticleBody_dp-slot-inline\" data-ad-type=\"other\">\n<div id=\"dpslot_native_6846567_USKBN1HU2G8\" class=\"DPSlot_ad-container\" data-google-query-id=\"CIaxkYS-kt0CFYezUQodKNgAFA\">Tomorrow&#8217;s convention is likely to see JB, as she popularly referred to, re-elected.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The party\u2019s spokesperson, Noah Chimpeni, did not have a full list of candidates but maintained all was set for the indaba.<\/p>\n<p>Chimpeni said the play field is level in the party for all the candidates to sell their manifestoes to delegates freely.<\/p>\n<p>Mphidza said, when elected party president, he would promote equitable distribution of positions.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWhat we differ is that Dr. Joyce Banda does not believe in equitable distribution of positions in the party. She leaves the positions open for people to compete anyhow but I will ensure that every district has a position in the party,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Main opposition Malawi Congress was the first to hold a convention followed by ruling Democratic Progressive Party and United Democratic Front.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By Jameson Chauluka [dropcap]T[\/dropcap]he People\u2019s Party (PP) will tomorrow hold an elective conference in Blantyre where the party\u2019s leader, Joyce Banda, will be challenged by Leonard Mphidza for the party\u2019s top job Mphidza is the party\u2019s Deputy Secretary for the Southern Province but he doesn\u2019t pose a major threat to the former Head of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69014","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\/69014","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=69014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69015,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69014\/revisions\/69015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}