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| National |
| No President for UDF |
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by
Gedion Munthali, 17 June 2003
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18:09:47
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A draft UDF constitution, expected to be ratified at a special convention next month, has abolished the party presidency and given all powers to the national chair, deputy UDF secretary general Paul Maulidi said on Tuesday.
Maulidi said in an interview that the party’s presidential candidate and running mate will just be members of the party’s executive committee if they win to become state president and vice state president.
“The party will have no president under the new constitution. It is the chairperson who will be in charge of the party,” said Maulidi, a member of the legal team that reviewed the constitution.
“If our (UDF) presidential candidate and runningmate win next year’s presidential elections, and become state president and vice state president respectively, they will be under the chairperson on party matters,” said Maulidi.
A joint meeting at Sanjika Palace of cabinet and executive committee decided in March that Muluzi, who steps down as head of state in May next year, remain in the party’s top brass as national chair.
Muluzi, going by his pronouncements during his recent political rallies, has already accepted the position.
Other than the position of national chair, the new law has also created posts of first deputy national chair and second deputy national chair.
But Maulidi said the position of Director General, currently occupied by Water Development minister Dumbo Lemani, does not exist under the new constitution.
Under the new constitution, Maulidi said, a preceding 10-year membership to the party will no longer be a prerequisite for contesting the party’s leadership position.
“The condition has been removed because it is inconsistent with the provision of the Republican constitution in this regard, and, for that matter, it encroaches on freedom of association,” said Maulidi.
He said the new constitution confines the tenure of party chair to two successive terms of five years each, unlike in the old constitution where, he said, the stipulation was not “very explicit”.
He said an extraordinary convention will be held on July 8 at Chichiri Conference Centre to embrace the new constitution ahead of a main convention a month later on August 8 this year at the same venue.
“Our old constitution was done in 1993 way before the Republican constitution, and it became of the essence that we should harmonise it with the ultimate law of the land,” said Maulidi.
Besides endorsing Bingu wa Mutharika and Cassim Chilumpha as presidential candidate and running mate correspondingly, Maulidi said the August convention will also elect a new executive committee.
“My office has not yet received names of aspirants for various positions on the national executive,” said Maulidi.
The UDF last held a convention in 1993 at the Natural Resources College in Lilongwe. The vacancies that occurred over the years have been filled through appointments.
Maulidi said members of the executive, MPs, regional, district, constituency and assembly committee members will be delegates to the convention.
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