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| National |
| Chaos reigns in Bingu’s constituency |
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by
Pilirani Semu-Banda, 30 December 2004
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11:01:44
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Tempers are flaring in President Bingu wa Mutharika’s Thyolo East constituency where members of the UDF district committee are reportedly campaigning against the party’s candidate for the January parliamentary by-elections in favour of an independent candidate.
Reports indicate that the UDF candidate Foster Mlumbe is struggling to get people’s support in the area to vote for him as he does not have the support of any UDF guru except Mutharika and Local Government deputy minister Patricia Kaliati, who is chairing the ruling party campaign team in the constituency.
The rest of the UDF, including party chair Bakili Muluzi, are reported to be supporting independent candidate Babu Khamisa, a nephew to Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Bob Khamisa.
Kaliati confirmed on Wednesday that no UDF guru, apart from herself and deputy minister of transport Roy Commsy, has been campaigning for Mlumbe and that the district committee is rallying against the party candidate.
“The UDF yellow vehicle is being used to campaign for the independent candidate and the UDF district committee is going around telling people to vote for an independent candidate,” said Kaliati.
She said she tried to get in touch with Muluzi last week but only managed to get through to the former president’s aide-de-camp who assured her that the party chair is for Mlumbe.
Kaliati also said her campaign committee is using money from Mutharika following his K275,000 ($2,546) contribution towards the exercise when the constituency got “stranded” due to lack of campaign money.
“Of course we got K50,000 from Atcheya at the beginning of the campaign but this was not enough because our budget was K781,000 and the President ended up giving us K275,000,” said Kaliati.
She said some of the district committee members are bitter because they wanted to use the campaign money for personal needs such as cultivating their gardens and that she has refused to continue giving them the money after she gave them an initial sum of K500 each.
The deputy minister said she used Mutharika’s money to buy two tyres and fuel for the yellow vehicle now being used to campaign for the independent candidate.
Kaliati also accused Bob Khamisa of reporting her to the District Commissioner that she has been using her ministerial vehicle for campaign.
“I am a deputy minister and I use a government vehicle because of that but I don’t use it for campaign. I use my white Toyota Corolla and I risk a lot by doing that,” said Kaliati.
But Khamisa counter-accused Kaliati of “being silly by trying to drag my name into mud as an excuse for her failure”.
He said he refused to be chair of the campaign exercise because his nephew is contesting and that this did not go well “with some quarters” because Babu Khamisa had protested against the party primaries which he called unfair.
“He’s my nephew, yes. He has his own rights and I have no control over him. He’s my brother’s son but I don’t run the affairs of my brother’s family,” said Khamisa.
He said his nephew is popular in the area and “has a 90 percent chance to win because of Kaliati’s failure to campaign for the UDF candidate”.
Babu Khamisa said he is not being supported nor funded by Muluzi, saying he has his own four vehicles which he uses for campaign.
UDF Thyolo district governess, a Mrs. Bisani, who was mentioned by Kaliati as being at the forefront campaigning for the independent candidate could not be reached on her mobile telephone for comment on Wednesday.
Muluzi’s spokesman Sam Mpasu said the party chair is the custodian of the UDF and that he cannot support any other candidate but the one who belongs to the party. He said the fact that Muluzi only contributed K50,000 to the constituency is not an issue because that was the sum he gave to every campaign exercise.
“People should know that it’s not money that makes candidates win elections but how the candidates relate to the masses,” said Mpasu.
In Blantyre City East, UDF has not resolved the issue where both the “government” and mainstream sides of the party are fielding their own candidates in the same by-elections.
The party regional organising secretary Mc Donald Saimoni said last month that Mutharika’s political advisor Francis Mphepo is supporting an independent candidate using government resources and not the “official candidate” Janet Chikoko.
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