Chakwera under MCP fire for favouring church members

Divisions have rocked Malawi Congress Party (MCP) with some party members accusing new party president Lazarus Chakwera in a petition of favouring members from the church he led, Assemblies of God, at the expense of veterans.

The petition to Chakwera, which we have seen and dated August 19, expresses “dismay and unhappiness” over  dominance of church members in MCP.

Titled ‘Confusion created by church members in the party rank and file’, the petition also accuses Chakwera of positioning church members without consulting party veterans.

It says “promotion to senior positions has to be done through close consultations with regional chairmen or any other senior members of the party.”

Chakwera: Reshuffling MCP members
Chakwera: Reshuffling MCP members

The petition said all loyal members of MCP are being “pushed aside” by Chakwera’s personal assistant Reverend Thom.

The letter warns Chakwera “not to include your new found members from the church and so called young professional group.”

The concerned party members feel the imposed officials will prove costly to MCP  because some of them have no capacity to rebuild the party ahead of next year’s elections.

It said: “We want the traditional way of the party to be maintained and respected.”

Chakwera has been asked to consult party veterans when filling positions and programmes of political rallies.

It also complained that the party’s long serving administrative secretary Portipher Chidaya will be replaced by Henry Kamata Mbeje of Assemblies of God.

Chakwera , who is yet to come out with a complete line up of members of the party’s national executive committee (Nec), could not immediately comment on the petition.

A party convention in Lilongwe on August 10 gave the new President a mandate to fill up the Nec posts after the meeting observed that it did not have enough time to conduct elections for some of the posts.

The convention only elected the president, his two deputies, the secretary general and his deputy as well as the treasurer general.

The convention also resolved that all regions should submit names of people in different positions for possible inclusion into the Nec and also mandated the new President to make necessary appointments based on the given names and regional balance consideration.

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