Kachali says has not joined DPP, still PP
Malawi State Vice-President Khumbo Kachali says he remains member of People’s Party of President Joyce Banda and clarified that he has not rejoined Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Peter Mutharika.
Kachali, a former PP vice-president (North), held a joint rally with Mutharika, his running mate Saulos Chilima and several DPP officials at Mzimba Community Centre ground on Monday where he urged Northern Region voters to vote for Mutharika in the presidential race in the May 20 Tripartite Elections.
Mutharika also said Kachali has been readmitted in the DPP fold.
But after PP secretary general Paul Maulidi said he was writing Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to remove Kachali on the ballot as PP parliamentary candidate for Mzimba South West Constituency, President Banda’s want-away deputy argued he has not withdrawn his PP membership.
“I resigned as an executive member of the party [PP] and I am currently an ordinary member,” Kachali is quoted by The Nation on Thursday.
Maulidi accused Kachali of playing [mind] games, saying “he is practically out of the party”.
Kachali lost sync with PP in February this year after the President picked Minister of Industry and Trade Sosten Gwengwe as her running mate.
He described Banda’s decision to pick Gwengwe when he was her Vice-President as vote of no confidence in him.
MEC chief elections officer Willie Kalonga said MEC will maintain Kachali as PP candidate on the ballot paper despite the defection, arguing there is no law that prohibits the defection. The development means PP will not be represented.