DPP rejects fuelling MCP civil war — Kudontoni says ruling party will benefit
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary general Ecklen Kudontoni has said it wrong for MCP to drag his party into its internal squabbles, saying the main opposition party was paying the price of removing the old guard.
There are speculations within the MCP’s rank and file that the confusion in the party is gaining momentum because party president Lazarous Chakwera fire some members with dissenting views from the National Executive Committee (NEC).
Apparently, MCP accuses the other faction for working with DPP to weaken the opposition.
But Kudontoni said that assertion is unfair and wrong.
“It is a problem of their own making. If anything, DPP will only benefit from the [MCP] in-fighting in 2019.
“We are not the ones who dragged the party to court. We are not the one that fired some members. We are not the ones that are calling for a convention,” said Kudontoni
“We have no time to care about MCP issues,” he said.
There has also been speculation that the confusion is heightened because of the infighting about Chakwera’s potential running mate choice in the 2019 presidential elections as one camp prefers Richard Msowoya—the current vice-president of the party—and the other group leaning towards former minister Sidik Mia
And MCP secretary-general Gustav Kaliwo who wrote a comprehensive letter to Chakwera highliting the problems in the party, mentioned Mia and the DPP link, with party loyalists saying DPP capitalised on this and used the people who failed at regional level and those that thought Chakwera will pick them for NEC positions.
Despite the infighiting, Chakwera contends that MCP remained a strong contender of the DPP in 2019 and all indications from across the breadth of the country were that the party would triumph if elections were held today.
His assertions are, however, contrary to a recent Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) analysis which indicated that opposition political parties in the country have no chance of mounting a successful challenge of the current government even as allegations of government corruption and cost of living continues to go up.
EIU said MCP and its leader, Chakwera, would struggle to offer any viable policy alternatives by 2019 due to internal wrangles which have ended in the courts and would only stand to gain should an economic recovery fail to take place before the polls.
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