Chakwera courts UDF, Synods and Congoma  ‘to discuss national matters’

President Lazarus Chakwera is courting the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and has scheduled a meeting with its party leaders.

State House Director of Communications Pastor Sean Kampondeni,said on Monday during the weekly  media briefings that President Chakwera  will meet UDF Secretary General Kandi Padambo and the party’s vice-president for the south, Lance Mbewe .

Kampondeni said the meeting will be to discuss national matters in fulfillment of pledge to be engaging leaders of opposition.

However, UDF leader Atupele Muluzi, is not going to attend the meeting.

Atupele, who took over the party’s leadership from his father and the country’s second president, Bakili Muluzi, faces an uphill task to revamp his political fortunes, as well as those of his party.

He is is facing pressure from some district committee members to convene an extraordinary national conference to map the way forward for the party with some suggesting end the working relationship with the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party].

The DPP and UDF went into a working relationship to gain votes in Parliament and support the government’s legislative agenda in the first five years of the DPP from May 2014.

Ahead of the June 23 Fresh Presidential Election, the two parties also formed an alliance where Muluzi was running mate to DPP president Peter Mutharika.

Muluzi recently said the UDF will maintain its partnership with the DPP.

Meanwhile, Kampondeni said Chakwera has had a number of meetings with various stakeholders in the past week aimed at pushing the development agenda of the Tonse Alliance government.

In the presidential diary, Kampondeni said Chakwera will also meet members of Congoma, the umbrella body of all civil society organisations as well as representatives of various synods of the CCAP.

President Chakwera will also meet members of the People’s Land Organisation (PLO), an activist group fighting for land ownership rights in districts of Thyolo and Mulanje.