Aford runs short of candidates

Alliance for Democracy (Aford), which scooped 36 seats in the 1994 general elections, has run short of candidates for the May 20 Tripartite Elections.

The party’s caretaker  president Christopher Ritchie yesterday said very few people are expressing interest, to contest on the party ticket and in cases where people have expressed interest it is one candidate per constituency.

He said with one aspirant per constituency, the party is not in a position to hold primaries and those who have expressed interest are being endorsed.

In the Southern Region, only one person has expressed interest; Central Region has four while in the Northern Region only eight have been identified so far.

However, in the North, more names are expected as the party is yet to finalise the list.

“Right now, we are in the process of compiling the list of candidates so that we present the names to Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC),” he said.

Asked why party members were not willing to contest on the party ticket, Ritchie said the divisions in the party have led to the problem.

Former Aford spokesperson Dan Msowoya, who will contest in Mzuzu City on the party’s ticket, also confirmed that the party is endorsing aspirants without going through primaries due to lack of competition.

The party, regarded as the pioneer of democracy in Malawi, had 33 MPs in the Northern Region, and two in Central Region in the 1994 polls.