Joyce Banda shocked with PP membership decline
Former president Joyce Banda is reportedly shocked to learn that her People’s Party (PP) has lost many key party officials who defected to other parties and the general membership decline at the grassroots and the attempts to lure them back is proving too difficult since she returned to Malawi on 28 April after her four year’s absence.
Since her homecoming, she has been holding regional conferences for the party almost exactly a year before Malawi’s elections scheduled for May 2019.
But party sources told Nyasa Times that Banda is “shocked” that the party has los strength in membership and several pillars have fallen away.
She says she will be seeking the presidential nomination of her PP, which she founded in 2011. Given that she has no real competition within its ranks, her endorsement would be a formality.
“She has a bigger challenge in rebuilding the party, which has suffered several significant defections in her long absence, mostly to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). She is daunted by this challenge as PP is failing to attract its lost membership back or new members since she returned,” the top official added.
Meanwhile, PP Secretary General Ibrahim Matola has said the party’s actionable executive committeee is te to meet to decide whether Banda – who has never won any presidential race – can have another presidential run.
“The party has decided to first hold regional meetings with its members before proceeding with the NEC meeting,” Matola said.
He disclosed that PP concluded its regional consultantI’ve meetings in the Eastern Region last week.
If Banda runs for president again, she will face an uphill battle. 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.
Banda’s 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, but she has been implicated in the testimonies of several individuals who have been convicted. Many presume her four-year sex exile was due to her fear of arrest.
Though she claimed since her return home that she has been cleared of any involvement in cashgate, but the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has denied this is the case. Its investigators say they are still reviewing the evidence. It is possible they will end up summoning her regardless of what they find under political pressure from the government.
In 2011, Banda, who was then vice-president, defected from the DPP after refusing to endorse Peter Mutharika’s bid to be the next president. Then, in 2012, the two briefly tussled for power after President Bingu wa Mutharika died suddenly. Banda, who retained her vice-presidential role despite leaving the ruling party, became president in accordance with the constitution.
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Oooh God please Remove the scales of blindness from the eyes of my fellow MALAWIANS so that we can see that BUSHIRI IS the only Answer to the hardships the country is facing otherwise We will regret /Suffer Like NEVER BEFORE IN HUMAN HISTORY
PLEASE CSOS PAC CHIEFS CHURCH LEADERS INVITE BUSHIRI TO COME AND HELP GOVERN THE COUNTRY AS WAS THE CASE WITH KAMUZU
THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN IS NOW
MAY GOD BLESS OUR LAND
Why would a party that is left leaderless for so long thrive? Why would you be surprised by the drop in membership? What’s wrong with you mama? Are you OK? You really expected people to do the spade work for you, while you are having a luxurious life in the skyscrapers of Sandton. What is there to deny? I can challenge you that a president who had less than two years in office at retirement would not be able sustain the kind of lifestyle you had overseas, unless you had cash stacked up in shelves elsewhere. So where did you… Read more »
Amai tsopano…kkkkkkk..koma abale zinazi kkkkkkk…
Joice Banda,whom do you blame for your Party’s downfall? Now do you realise that corruption and thefty never work for a long time? You have finished enjoyed your loot and now you come for another loot? The problem with you leaders who were not involved in the freedom struggle of our Land,is that you never suffered the consequences and therefore everthing came to you like manna from heaven.Joyce,you can hoodwink some people some time,but you can not cheat all the people all the time.By all means, your opportunities have gone but,you have remained with some Cash-Gate wealth that will sustain… Read more »
Kodi amai za PP mudakaganizabe?Malawi wake yemweyi? kapena wina?
If Joyce is able to access half of the money she looted and buy nsalu za chipani for 3.5 million voters then she will be assured of a win. Most Malawians would not hesitate to vote for anyone who’s able to give them nsalu. Malawi has never been a complex or sophistaicated country and that’s any we have hopeless people running the country who have no idea about leading a complex third world country.
The political pressure is mounting, and sustained on Joisi Banda, especially in the East and South. Does she have the energy and stamina to survive the slow melt down of PP, and the Cashgate albatross around her neck? Probably not. At this juncture, the North is her only hope, and it’s only because of her spousal relationship: one more evidence that Malawians do vote along cultural (read tribal) grounds, and most other reasons are Lilliputian. In that regard, she does not change the Northern political dynamics at all, as AFORD will inevitably replace PP. PP supporters should by now be… Read more »
Now I have lost the little respect I had for this dunderhead she is too dull.
After her absence for all this time what did she expect??,???
The main reasons why she lost the presidential election are as follows
1. only PP officials and Bandas relations were recruited in Immigration department
2.only PP officials and Bandas relations were chosen for Korea/ UAE jobs
3. Mudzi transformation trust beneficiaries were only PP members
The above points whether JB was aware of or not made her loose the election and i will never vote for her in any election
This Jezebel called JB is a total waste of time for Malawians. Alibe manyazi munthu oyipa uyu, kusiya ana kukadya ndalama anaba za Cashgate lero akufuna Vote