Parties optimistic of winning May elections

Three more political parties yesterday presented their nomination papers for the presidential race to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in Blantyre.

The three presidential candidates who submitted their nominations yesterday were Professor John Chisi of Umodzi Party (UP), James Nyondo of the National Salvation Front (Nasaf) and Friday Jumbe of the New Labour Party (NLP).

Chisi unveiled former United Democratic Front (UDF) legislator William Tayub as his running mate, Nyondo has partnered Nasaf treasurer general Ethel Peter Changa from Nsanje while Jumbe has teamed up with his secretary general Joseph Kubwalo.

All the parties were optimistic of winning the tripartite elections on 20th May 2014. In all the three occasions, there were fewer people and some chairs were empty.

First to present his nominations was Chisi who told the gathering that Malawi was endowed with resources but lacked potential leadership which, he said, his party was ready to provide.

He described the country as being in tough times with high poverty levels due to poor workmanship and stubbornness of its leaders.

On his part, Nyondo expressed disappointment that Malawi has turned her people into political actors instead of being economic actors.

“We will turn Malawians into economic actors. We will show them how to do it,” he said.

Nyondo described political actors as those who know how to confess sins of others and work to pull one another down.

Nyondo’s nomination was under threat after his former campaign director, Bamani Zgambo, threatened to block the process unless his dues were paid.

But Nyondo told a press conference that Zgambo was only trying to blackmail him as there was no such case in court.

Jumbe said he was the right person to lift Malawi out of the problems it is facing because he knows them. He, however, called on MEC to be on guard to make sure that those that are supposed to provide civic education do not favour one political party.

MEC announced that three more candidates will present their nomination papers this Friday. They are President Joyce Banda of the People’s Party (PP), Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde) president George Nnensa who will lead a six-party coalition called Tisintha Alliance and People’s Transformation (Petra)’s Kamuzu Chibambo.

Petra was initially scheduled to present the papers on Wednesday but endorsement forms from three districts were not ready.