Malawi’s speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda, who on Friday was defeated in the DPP presidential race, says he will remain a member of the party regardless of the results and what he says were flawed procedures in the run up to the convention.
Speaking in a telephone interview on Friday, Chimunthu Banda said he accepted the results of the convention because he is a democrat “at heart”.
He said Malawians are the best judges.
Said Chimunthu Banda: “An election is a process, not an event. When declarations are made on credibility of an election, one has to look at its totality up to the day of voting. I have no ill intentions, but as I said, Malawians are the best judges.”
On the convention day, signs were clear that scales tipped in favour of Peter Mutharika, who emerged winner, as party vehicles had his stickers to that effect.
As he addressed the convention’s delegates, chairperson of the convention, Nicholas Dausi, who is the party’s publicity secretary, shouted Mutharika’s slogan of “Peter Woyeee!”
During the convention, the party widely distributed a four-page newsletter promoting Mutharika’s leadership while ridiculing Chimunthu Banda as somebody who never came out as a DPP member until a month to the convention.
