DPP opens all constituencies to primary elections
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says it has resolved to open all the 193 parliamentary constituencies, including where the party has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), to aspirants during primary elections to identify candidates for the 2014 tripartite elections.
DPP publicity secretary Nicholas Dausi said in an interviewon Friday that even Thyolo East Constituency where the party’s president Peter Mutharika is the incumbent MP will be up for grabs.
The decision follows recent reported divisions in the party over a proposal on whether to hold primary elections in all the constituencies, including where DPP has sitting MPs. Some DPP members proposed that in constituencies where the party has sitting MPs, no primary elections should be held to appreciate the incumbents’ loyalty to the party.
Dausi confirmed that the party has finally made a decision on the issue.
The issue of the primaries was raised during a caucus meeting in Lilongwe ahead of the current meeting of Parliament, but the party initially failed to come up with a final position on the matter following disagreements amongst the MPs.
Soon after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika in April 2012, scores of MPs dumped the DPP to join the now ruling People’s Party whose leader Joyce Banda, then Mutharika’s estranged vice-president, took over the presidency in line with constitutional order.
However, political analyst Mustafa Hussein agreed that the party should hold primary elections in all constituencies as this would strengthen democratic process and intra-party democracy.
