DPP urges Mutharika to shelve retirement plan until convention picks successor
Former president Peter Mutharika will continue to lead Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) until a party’s national convention elects a new leader with party top brass advising him to carry on as long as he can.
The resolution was made at his Mangochi retirement villa for the fomer president when the party’s politiburo met to discuss leadership succession.
According to sources in the party, Mutharika, who lost to President Lazarus Chakwera in the June 23 fresh presidential election,called the meeting to announce intention to retire from active politics and suggest an acting President of the party pending national convention.
However, members vehemently opposed any handpicked successor, arguing Mutharika’s suggestion was surprising and undemocratic.
“The leaders attending that meeting on Tuesday included the party’s vice presidents for all political regions-south, east, centre and north, Kondwani Nankhumwa, Dr. Bright Msaka, Uladi Mussa and Goodall Gondwe, secretary general Gelzeder Jeffrey, Francis Mphepo, the Administrative Secretary and executive member Brown Mpinganjira, among others.
“A few agreed with APM but a majority of the members said the mandate to run the party always ought to come from the leaders of the party in all its structures not an individual,” said one source.
After hours of arguments and counter-arguments, the meeting resolved that the former president continues to lead the party until the national convention is held when he will transfer leadership to an elected official.
It is not clear when the party would hold its elective conference, which was slated for 2023 if the party were still in government.
University of Malawi political scientist Mustafa Hussein said looking at the DPP’s performance in the presidential election, it is time for the party to conduct a postmortem and see where it went wrong and focus on what needs to be done.
The sooner APM leaves DPP leadership the better otherwise he’s becoming liability to the party
How is he becoming a liability? Stop capping
There are too many fractions in DPP, you guys are afraid of each other! You need to rebrand now, get rid of all the snakes , you may even want to change the name because DPP is now synonymous with Thieves, nepotism, corruption, impunity
In that case the party can call for an extraordinary or emergency party convention to discuss the issue and elect a new leader. Actually this is the only time they can do a postmortem as to what happened for the party to lose.
Let him call for an extra-ordinary convention and elect a new leader who will be responsible for re-branding and renewing of the party to a brand new footing. Nobody should mislead the DPP President that he should wait for a convention in 2023 which is very far away. Let the members choose their next leader. What are they afraid of? This is the time to shed off the old DPP and re-energize to a brand new opposition party to be a force to reckon with.
This will not help the party at all because some clever DPP top brass want to rule from behind. Peter has no grip of things now and he will largely depend on a group or one person to advice him. The Chisale system will happen again behind this old man.
Those who say Mutharika must continue are afraid of each other as who should be picked not that they want Mutharika as leader
Akuferani mukuwona ndithu. Do not force his to continue. Take a leaf from MCP. The party was rebranded and it is now leading the Tonse Alliance and very soon Chilima will join MCP because it has a strong base and with ethics. DPP kuli nkhalamu zokhazokha. What was Goodall Gondwe doing there at 86? Uladi Mussa? Brown Mpinganjira? Heatherwick Ntaba? Bintoni Kutsaira? Nicholas Dausi? Grezelda Jeffrey? George Chaponda? Very sickening names.
Seriously ?? You are letting the 80 yr old clueless man to be DPP???? He couldn’t stop his wife from stealing right under his nose!
This is the right time to have a successor who should put in place a strategy to revitalize the party, otherwise waiting till 2023 will breed infighting instead of working on the winning formula for the next election. The disgruntled ones will likely defect, to further weaken the injured party.
He can be DPP leader until 2033, who cares. He’s a prince of thieves who destroyed Malawi.
Mbava za DPP are daydreaming. A swarm of thieves still believe their Prince will come back to be president one day. Wake up! he will not. Malawians will never allow you to rule this country again.
Simaloto kuti mudzuka, this is real,.Muchira koma.
Who could know that one day mcp under 9 parties will rule Malawi. I think you are the one who is day dreaming. Are you still dreaming of going back to one party system?? If you can say DPP will never rule Malawi again does it mean that utmcp will rule to the very end of the world??