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| National |
| One region one candidate for Coalition |
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by
Denis Mzembe, 06 February 2004
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13:48:31
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The Mgwirizano Coalition will on Monday choose its presidential candidate and running mate from the elected leaders of its member parties through interviews to be conducted by an evaluation board.
The board, comprising of four members from each member party and headed by a neutral person, will interview the candidates and assess their suitability guided by the criteria contained in their memorandum of understanding (MOU).
National Unity Party (NUP) president Harry Chiume, who was rotational coalition chair until Thursday when he handed over the mantle to PPM president Aleke Banda, said the coalition will also ensure that the running mate does not come from the same region as the president to foster unity.
Said Chiume: “The MOU is clear. When the president has been chosen then the electoral college must make sure that they don’t choose the running mate from the same region or party as the president.
“In that vein, we hope that when it comes to selecting the second vice president, he would also come from a completely different region as the president and the running mate.
Potential candidates from the Southern Region are Gwanda Chakuamba of the Republican Party and George Nnesa of Mafunde. NDA’s Brown Mpinganjira could also be another candidate from the South should his party decide to join he coalition.
Potential candidates from the North are Aleke, Chiume, Kamlepo Kalua of Malawi Democratic Party (MDP), and Kamuzu Chibambo of Petra. Mgode will also add another candidate from its convention to be held in Mzuzu on Saturday.
So far, there is no candidate from the Centre as MCP, whose president John Tembo comes from the region, has not yet signed the MOU. The coalition gave the MCP up to Friday to decide on the issue.
Former Mafunde secretary general, Anthony Mukumbwa, said the clause requiring that the president, his running mate and second vice president should come from different regions should have been modified to allow anyone to compete.
“The Central Region, for example, only has John Tembo. So if he were to compete, he would go in unopposed. That is why we [some delegates to the Mafunde convention] needed people like Malewezi to widen the selection base,” he said.
Asked what calibre of people will make up the evaluation board, Chiume said the onus is on the parties to choose responsible people.
Said Chiume: “We expect that they will send responsible people. People who will appreciate what a leader should be. We are looking for people who will not put subjectivity into the process. We want to come up with a candidate who has been properly assessed.
“We want a candidate who is acceptable to the nation. A candidate who is a person of integrity, a candidate who has the welfare of the people at heart. He would be a person who is not corrupt. A corrupt person will always look after himself before others. Somebody patriotic and looks at Malawi as one nation.”
Coalition spokesperson Kholiwe Mkandawire said names of those to be on the board will remain a secret to avoid unnecessary influence from the candidates.
“The candidates will be subjected to interviews and it would not be proper for them to know the panel that will be interviewing them,” she said.
Mkandawire added: “In the event that there’s no candidate in a particular region the we will consider taking Malawi as a nation and wherever any other candidates come from we will accept that. Our first view is that Malawi is taken as a nation but we recognise that although it is a nation there are those overtones of regional practices that’s why we were being sensitive about regions being properly covered and properly considered. Basically we take Malawi as a nation but we would not be completely uncomfortable if one region has no candidate.”
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