|
Aford president Chakufwa Chihana has indicated his intention to quit his party post after the January 11, 2005 by-elections and challenged aspirants to start eyeing the seat he has held since 1993, insiders say.
Chihana’s sentiments, which came up during the party’s regional conference for the north on Saturday, quashed speculation that he was grooming Secretary General Wallace Chiume to take over from him.
According to sources at the closed-door conference, Chihana seemed not to favour Chiume or anyone for a possible take over. Chiume was not present at the meeting where the print media was denied access.
But publicity secretary Khwauli Msiska in an interview said he did not know that Chihana had indicated he would resign.
Said Msiska: “It is not true that Chihana offered to step down, nothing like that was said. Of course the issue of a convention was mentioned, but only the National Executive Committee (NEC) can decide on that, and not a regional conference, like the one we held on Saturday in Mzuzu.”
Msiska said there was no way Chihana could talk of stepping down because the four-year mandate of his leadership and his executive still has two years to run. He stressed the meeting was only to analyse reports from district conferences and to strengthen the party.
He said: “It is not of course every convention that has elections on agenda, unless NEC feels otherwise, but I don’t remember it being said. As the party’s publicity secretary I would say there is no intention to have Chihana step down and the meeting did not discuss that.”
But reliable sources said Chihana initially indicated he would call for a convention in December where he would announce his resignation and have a new president for the party.
“However, some people were sceptical about the arrangement, hence pressed the president to shelve the idea until the forthcoming by-elections were over. It was, however, decided that due to pressures of preparing for by-elections, the party could only afford a convention after January 11,” said one source.
During the meeting, delegates reportedly expressed satisfaction with the current government, stressing that the party should continue working with government.
Msiska said it was regrettable that the media was painting a picture that Chihana was not comfortable with the present government.
“It is discomforting that the media misquotes us, so we have decided that only me as publicity secretary talks on any national issues regarding our party,” he said.
Chaired by party national chairman Chipimpha Mughogho, the conference also filled in gaps within the regional committee, an exercise Msiska said was the main agenda.
|
