The election of Khumbo Kachali as vice-president of Malawi’s ruling People’s Party (PP) does not make him an automatic running mate to President Joyce Banda in 2014.
PP’s re-elected secretary general Henry Chibwana said this in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
On Monday, the PP convention at the College of Medicine in Blantyre elected Kachali as the party’s vice-president (operations), Minister of Energy and Mines Cassim Chilumpha as vice-president (political) and Transport and Public Works Minister Sidik Mia as vice-president (administration).
The party has already started touting Banda as the torchbearer for PP in the 2014 presidential race.
Said Chibwana in an interview at the convention venue: “You are talking about the three vice-presidents and the issue of running mate; these are two separate issues and should never be mixed. We will wait.
“The choice of the running-mate is the prerogative of the President.â€
The newly-adopted PP constitution in Article 11 (2) (ii) says the national conference of the party shall elect the presidential candidate who would in turn nominate a running mate.
