Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Peter Mutharika on Friday took a swipe at President Joyce Banda, describing her as “total failure who has messed up a golden chance” to prove herself as a capable leader.
Mutharika said this at a rally he addressed at Luchenza in Thyolo where he introduced his running mate in the May 20 Tripartite Elections Saulos Chilima to the party’s faithful.
But in an interview on Saturday, People’s Party (PP) deputy spokesperson Ken Msonda thrashed Mutharika’s claims, saying DPP cannot stand on high moral ground to teach Malawians about good governance.
Said Mutharika: “When I am elected president on May 20, I will spend more time in office and will not waste time distributing chickens and goats in the villages.
“We gave Joyce [Banda] a chance to prove if she is a good leader, but she has failed.”
Mutharika said that was why he decided to give Banda a ‘red card’, to signal that her time to rule the country is over.
He said should DPP win the election, his government will introduce programmes to benefit all citizens, especially women and the youth.
But Msonda said DPP cannot teach PP how to run government.
“President Banda, being a good leader that she is, needs to interact with the people at grass roots to find out what their problems are. She does not want to make decisions based on wrong information,” he said.
In his remarks, Chilima urged the people to keep their voter certificates safe and not succumb to fraudsters who would want to buy the cards, thereby robbing them of their right to choose good leaders.
“It does not make sense for Malawians to lack food after 50 years of independence. When we assume power on May 20, we will introduce several programmes aimed at developing the country. As a country, we should move towards less dependence on donor aid,” he said.
Before Mutharika and Chilima spoke at the rally, other DPP gurus such as treasurer general George Chaponda and deputy spokesperson Nicholas Dausi took turns to criticise PP’s rule.
