{"id":74292,"date":"2019-02-11T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T11:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=74292"},"modified":"2019-02-11T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T11:21:10","slug":"mec-refuses-to-withdraw-mzimba-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/02\/11\/mec-refuses-to-withdraw-mzimba-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Mec refuses to withdraw Mzimba candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Mandy Pondani: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/mzomera-ngwira.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13865\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/mzomera-ngwira-300x162.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/mzomera-ngwira-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/mzomera-ngwira-610x332.jpg 610w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/mzomera-ngwira.jpg 614w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has rejected governing Democratic Progressive Party\u2019s (DPP) request to withdraw the parliamentary candidature of Henry Mumba of Mzimba-Hora Constituency.<\/p>\n<p>Mec spokesperson, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, said, according to the country\u2019s electoral laws, a party cannot withdraw a candidate\u2019s name.<\/p>\n<p>DPP secretary general (GS), Grezelder Jeffrey, had written Mec, saying the decision to withdraw Mumba\u2019s name was due to circumstances beyond the party\u2019s control.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cDue to circumstances beyond our control, we, hereby, write to advise your good offices about withdrawal of candidate Henry Mumba who had submitted his nomination papers on February 6 2019 to contest on the DPP ticket. Kindly act accordingly on this instruction,\u201d<\/em> the letter reads.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jeffrey was not readily available for a comment yesterday on the reasons behind the party\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>DPP spokesperson, Nicholas Dausi, Sunday said he needed more time before commenting on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>DPP Northern Region governor, Kenneth Sanga, referred <em>The Daily Times <\/em>to the party\u2019s legal adviser Charles Mhango, saying issues of candidates are centralised.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe party centralised the issue of candidates and that is why even our primaries were managed at central level,\u201d<\/em> Sanga said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But Mhango said he could not comment on the matter since he did not write Mec.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Mec has said any person\u2019s candidature can only be withdrawn when the candidate informs them in writing.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe procedure is that the candidate should inform us in writing. Even if the candidate withdraws or leaves a party, the party cannot feature a replacement. There is no nomination by substitution,\u201d<\/em> Mwafulirwa said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mumba said he was not aware of the development, saying he remains DPP\u2019s torchbearer for the constituency.<\/p>\n<p>There has been a long standing dispute between Mumba and incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Christopher Mzomera-Ngwira, who was declared bankrupt by the court, thereby, making him ineligible to contest for public office.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Jeffrey told the media that Ngwira would be replaced alongside Joe Nyirongo who was aspiring councillor for Chibanja Ward in Mzuzu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mandy Pondani: Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) has rejected governing Democratic Progressive Party\u2019s (DPP) request to withdraw the parliamentary candidature of Henry Mumba of Mzimba-Hora Constituency. Mec spokesperson, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, said, according to the country\u2019s electoral laws, a party cannot withdraw a candidate\u2019s name. DPP secretary general (GS), Grezelder Jeffrey, had written Mec, saying the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74292","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\/74292","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=74292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74299,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74292\/revisions\/74299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}