Mayor wants Luchenza to become a constituency
Mayor for Luchenza Municipal Council Harold Kaliwo has asked authorities to detach the Municipality from Thyolo East and Mulanje South East constituencies so that it becomes a separate constituency.
He made the call on Wednesday during a Decent and Affordable Housing Subsidy Project (DAHSP) familiarisation tour in Luchenza.
“For instance in this project, Luchenza which has eight wards had no allocation, the Council secretariat had to fight and in the end only 15 people have benefited, 11 from the Mulanje South East side and four from the Thyolo East side out of the total population of 25 thousand,” said Kaliwo.
According to Kaliwo, the Municipality still lags behind on development due to financial constraints as it does not directly benefit from Constituency Development Funds allocated to the two constituencies.
“I again plead with government to start making allocations for Luchenza on its own, without involving the named constituencies if the Municipality is to develop,” urged Kaliwo.
In an interview on Thursday, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said the issue is being looked into under the constituency demarcation process.
He acknowledged that administrative areas have been a bone of contention in many areas including Chonde – Luchenza, Mzuzu – Nkhata-Bay and Lilongwe City-Dowa.
MEC is mandated to determine constituency boundaries impartially on the basis of ensuring that constituencies contain approximately equal numbers of voters eligible to register but subjected only to consider administrative boundaries.
