DPP youth leader warns APM on 2019

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) national youth director Louis Ngalande has cautioned President Peter Mutharika to tread carefully and “seriously rethink” his position to represent the party in next year’s elections.

Ngalande also said former first lady Callista Mutharika is not alone when she openly spoke about leadership change last week in favour of Vice-President Saulos Chilima.

In an interview yesterday when he called The Nation, he said: “His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika must tread very carefully on this issue. When the former first lady spoke, some people mistook it for a family issue. It is not a family issue.

“In this day and era, where the majority of Malawians average ages are around 25 to 40 years, you cannot have a leader aged around 80 and above. It does not make sense. Our President must tackle this issue with the seriousness it deserves.”

Ngalande said DPP is divided on the leadership issue, with a good section of the members rallying behind Chilima, aged 45, to represent the party in the May 2019 general elections as a presidential candidate.

He said DPP members have not had a chance to give their views because the party has not held any national governing council (NGC) meeting in the past four years.

Ngalande said some senior members of DPP will soon come out and express their views on the leadership issue, disclosing that meetings have been taking place and that Chilima would even be approached.

He said it is absurd for some senior members such as the party’s secretary general Greselder Jeffrey to declare that Mutharika will be the party’s torch bearer in 2019 polls when the party never had a convention to endorse his candidature.

When contacted yesterday, Jeffrey declined to comment when it was put to her that the DPP youth leader mentioned her as one of the senior members misleading the President.

She said: “I have no comment to make my son. Talk to our party spokesperson Honourable [Francis] Kasaila if you want.”

Kasaila could not be reached yesterday despite several attempts.

But Ngalande said: “They [have no idea what is going on. You don’t declare a presidential candidate before the convention, and the President must not have accepted this. The party is sitting on a ticking time bomb if these issues are not thoroughly discussed and resolved.

“Where did the party make a resolution about the presidential candidate? The party has not met for the past five years, where can people express their views about the leadership? Is that democracy?”

He said as a youth director, he will stand for the truth and is ready to face the consequences. But he warned that the party is headed for disaster if the party’s leadership ignores advice from the former first lady and some members.

Said Ngalande: “There are people that have surrounded the President and are misleading him. Some of them are his advisers. The former first lady was not off point when he spoke of beasts and thieves surrounding the President, these things are there and we know it.

“The only problem is that people have not been brave enough to talk to the leadership. Another problem is that the party doesn’t meet. That is why people are resorting to newspapers, radios and other channels to air their views.”

Callista Mutharika, widow of former president Bingu wa Mutharika and sister-in-law to Peter Mutharika, on Saturday bashed the governing DPP, arguing she is airing her views to protect her in-law President Peter Mutharika from ‘beasts’.

When approached for an interview yesterday when we wanted to know if she was aware of support to her position from some DPP members, Callista said she was observing developments and would only speak again next month.

But presidential press secretary and spokesperson Mgeme Kalilani, speaking in an interview with The Nation after a WhatsApp group chat for former parliamentarians and Cabinet ministers was made public that Callista was in favour of Chilima, said Mutharika remained DPP’s presidential candidate and that he was in sound health.

In the WhatsApp comment, Callista said  Chilima was “the only hope for a better Malawi”.

She said DPP cannot win with Peter Mutharika as a presidential candidate.

In yesterday’s interview with ZBS, Callista said some people that are critical of her were once involved in corruption scandals but they now hold senior positions.

The Constitution prescribes 35 as the minimum age for a presidential candidate, but is silent on the maximum age for Presidents.