Katsonga eyes ZA Ntonya Constituency in 2019
Mwanza Central legislator Davis Chester Katsonga says he will contest as member of Parliament (MP) for Zomba Ntonya during the 2019 Tripartite Elections.
In an interview yesterday, the former speaker of Parliament Katsonga, who joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after deregistering his Chipani Cha Pfuko (CCP) after the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections, said he has given away his constituency due to internal pressure from the party’s top ranks.
This coincides with a declaration on Tuesday by DPP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi, who served as Mwanza Central legislator from 2009 to 2014, that the party will not hold primary elections in constituencies and wards where candidates are strong and have no contestants.
Said Katsonga: “I have been contesting in Mwanza Central since 1999, but in politics, one has to respond to what is current. There are issues that I could not deal with… Not from the people of Mwanza, but other top politicians and I feel safer contesting in Zomba.”
He said he grew up and studied in Zomba, and that his parents were buried there.
But Dausi, who is Minister of Information and Communications Technology, dismissed Katsonga’s claims that there is pressure from party top brass that led to Katsonga’s switch of constituencies.
“That is not true. DPP is a democratic party and has not barred him from contesting in the area. He might have changed constituencies basing on personal reasons,” he said.
On his part, National Elections Systems Trust (Nest) executive director Unandi Banda says legislators are at liberty to contest wherever they can be accepted by law.
