MCP backtracks on candidates’ shortlist

The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) says it will no longer trim the number of its presidential aspirants and will instead let delegates to its convention to decide the fate of the hopefuls.

Lingson Belekanyama, a member of a special committee tasked to scrutinise the candidates, said in an interview Wednesday the decision to leave the issue to the convention was made after none of the 12 candidates offered to withdraw voluntarily from the race as requested by the party’s national executive committee (NEC)

Belekanyama, who is also the party’s director of research, was approached as a member of the committee after The Nation’s two-day vain search for a final resolution from incumbent party president John Tembo who promised to announce the final list of candidates on Tuesday during an interview on Zodiak Broadcasting Station on Sunday.

He said the NEC also failed to agree on a proposed requirement for one to have served the party for at least five years to qualify as a candidate.

Belekanyama said the request for the candidates to voluntarily pull out of the race was made both when the aspirants met Tembo some weeks ago and also during the NEC meeting last week.

On Tuesday, Tembo said he was still in a meeting with the party’s vice-president MacDonald Lombola discussing the same issue while on Wednesday he said he was in Dedza where he was meeting some chiefs.

“I said when we are ready, I will call you,” that is all Tembo could say.

Both the chairperson of the organising committee for the convention, Joseph Njobvuyalema, and party spokesperson Jolly Kalelo could not be drawn to comment.

Njobvuyalema was said to be in a meeting whereas Kalelo, who was described as childish in the said radio interview for divulging proceedings of the NEC meeting while it was still in progress, said Tembo would be the appropriate person to comment on the short-listing process.

However, not amused by the internal politics over the issue of the candidates, one aspirant, former Farmers Union of Malawi president Felix Jumbe, accused old-timers in the party of engaging in internal propaganda to demonise some candidates.

Some MCP NEC members also expressed surprise that the issue of scrutinising the candidates was being tackled by the party’s leadership yet during the NEC meeting, members did not agree on anything.

Apart from the five-year requirement, the NEC members The Nation talked to also questioned some of the members of the committee which was mandated to scrutinise the candidates.

The committee that was mandated to scrutinise the candidates has Belekanyama, Njobvuyalema, Jean Sendeza, Vitus Dzoole Mwale, Watson Makala-Ngozo and Yona Kaphamtengo.