Joyce Banda needs a miracle to win Malawi presidency, says analyst: ‘Her popularity has waned’
Mzuzu-based political commentator Emily Mkamanga has said while immediate former President Joyce Banda’s ambition to contest as presidential candidate in the May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections was good in terms of fulfilling the 50-50 Campaign, but that she can’t win because her popularity and trust among the electoral have waned.
Mkamanga comments comes after People’s Party (PP) has said its leader, Banda will be on presidential ballot as its torch bearer.
She said in remarks reported the local daily newspaper, The Nation, that Banda chances are slim following her loss in 2014 and her prolonged absence after leaving the country for a self-imposed exile from July 2014 to April this year.
Mkamanga said: “She can do it, but chances are not good for her. She overstayed overseas, so it was like a party without a leader. People thought that she abandoned the party.”
She added: “Unless a miracle happens, time is not on her side. An alliance can be good for her.”
Banda returned to Malawi on 28 April 2018 since she lost the 2014 elections. Since her homecoming, she has been quick to criticise the current government led by President Peter Mutharika.
Her two years in power, from 2012-14, will always be synonymous with the cashgate scandal, which revealed the systematic looting of public money by civil servants, private contractors and politicians.
The former president has always denied having a hand in the theft of around $31 million, which began before her presidency. Many presume her reluctance to return to Malawi was due to her fear of arrest.
But Banda insists she has been cleared of any involvement in cashgate, but there is slow progress on unprecedented financial scandal of K236 billion Cashgate which occurred partly under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime . Authorities are not in investigating and prosecuting the cases, which a forensic audit established happened between 2009 and December 2014.
In the 2014 elections, Banda did not only fail to win, thus becoming Malawi’s first incumbent president to lose elections since the dawn of multi-party democracy in 1994, but came a distant third.
Emily Mkamanga is misled by small talkers. Dr Joyce Banda is as relevant to Malawi politics as everyone else and her chances to win in 2019 are very high.
She has proven to be the best in handling the affairs of Malawians in a good way than APM.
Make no mistake, JB will form the next government. Keep this in mind Emily
she is hoping for an alliance with one of the big boys, but her party is dead no one is interested in her. let me finish that cashgate money she stole with her hopeless campaigns we really dont care. the fat woman cant even step out of her car without those wooden steps, so even when she goes overseas she has to carry those steps, please big mama just retire and wait for your cashgate case ok.
I can’t forget our Presidential Jet. Useless Woman,
Her main base, the northern region, is fast being taken over by UTM. She is indeed irrelevant at the present time as a presidential candidate but can offer some consolidation of votes to the one she supports as a main candidate especially in UTM and MCP. One of the two parties can use JB to their advantage while providing her with some sort of political survival. However, a good population of Malawians still paint JB with distinct colors of Cashgate. That can pose a challenge to a party that enters an alliance with PP.
Amayi muti sokosa iza fozek
Emily, you are spot-on here. Either she is simply hungry for power spurred by her cashgate spoils or she has been totally deceived and misled…..or both. Either way, she can never win. She betrayed Malawians like the biblical Samson and Delilah. Spirits will never smile at her twice out of 18 million Malawians. Her place is jail with Lootepo and Kasambava.
Amayi jb
Pezani Zina zochita
Mpando munau lephera olowa lowa
Or mbuzi itavala kabudula basi simungawine….
Let’s be honest madam. There is no way you can make it to presidency. If the wellbeing of Malawians is your I, would strongly recommend you join forces with MCP, with no strings attached. This way you will win the hearts of Malawians. On the other hand, teaming up with DPP will be hypocrisy of the highest order and people will wonder what you are up to when it is common knowledge APM’s administration has been embroiled in everything that is bad and evil.
Honestly she and her party are totally irrelevant and wasting their time.
Its all just to clear to see in plain sight.