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| National |
| UDF in K200m debt |
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by
Pilirani Semu-Banda, 10 May 2005
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16:02:17
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UDF acting treasurer general Bob Khamisa said Monday his party owes service providers almost K200 million in campaign costs to sell President Bingu wa Mutharika to the electorate.
Among other things, Khamisa said the UDF spent the money on printing cloth, T-shirts, buying fuel for vehicles and putting up a campaign strategy.
“I am not able to tell you the exact figure. If you want that you should wait until the Chair [Bakili Muluzi] comes back from holiday but an estimate should be between K150 million and K200 million,” said Khamisa.
He said the party is in a “very difficult situation” as it is struggling to pay back the debts.
“As a matter of fact we’re in a financial quagmire. We owe people a lot of money for services provided during the election period and we don’t have the money to pay back,” said Khamisa.
He said the situation is more sad because Mutharika is no longer in the UDF.
Asked to explain if the party wanted Mutharika to get money from government coffers to pay back the loans, Khamisa said that was not the case.
“The issue of government coffers doesn’t come in. But if I may ask; where is he getting the money for finance his DPP [Democratic Progressive Party]? We put him on the chair he holds now. He should have used the money he is using in DPP to help settle the debts,” said Khamisa.
But DPP spokesman Hetherwick Ntaba dismissed UDF’s remarks saying they were “bizarre and strange”.
He questioned the reasoning on why the party was only picking on Mutharika.
“Is every parliamentary candidate being asked to pay for the expenses? Why are they just picking on the President? Was there any understanding? They should show us the evidence if at all there was any such arrangement that he should pay back,” said Ntaba.
He said no political party, in any part of the world, asks their candidates to pay back for expenses incurred in the campaign period.
“In civilised politics, this kind of thing does not happen. This is bizarre. It’s not normal behaviour,” said
Muluzi’s spokesman Sam Mpasu said last week that UDF members are working hard to find money to pay debts and the party expected Mutharika, as a beneficiary of the campaign, to give a hand.
“Has he not got any conscience that I’m part of the debt, that all was done for his success? He just walks away like that and does not even spare a single coin? We are pleading with him that if he has any sense of humanity, he should do something about this,” said Mpasu.
He said Mutharika is being even more unethical by working on destroying the UDF.
“We put up a very expensive campaign for him and he hasn’t given back the UDF the deserved respect for this,” said Mpasu.
But government spokesman Ken Lipenga reacted to Mpasu’s remarks saying UDF was making ridiculous claims, arguing that it is “totally wrong” to say the President should somehow be held accountable for the debt.
“Bingu was not responsible for any financial arrangement for the campaign, the campaign had people responsible for raising money and those are the ones to be accountable. At no time did the President tell anybody that go and get money from so and so for the campaign,” said Lipenga.
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