Malawi Congress Party convention postponed indefinitely
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has cancelled its national convention slated for this Saturday, April 27 to 29 in the capital Lilongwe to an indefinite date.
The party’s convention chairman Joseph Njobvuyalema ssaid that the decision was arrived at during the meeting the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party had on Thursday.
He said they cancelled the convention after receiving reports that there was no enough accommodation for its delegates in Lilongwe.
Njobvuyalema said delegates were expected to lodge at Natural Resources College but there was not enough space to keep all of them.
“We discovered that accommodation is a problem. We couldn’t find one place- fit-all place,” said Njobvuyalema.
He also said the party was facing a shortfall of K15 million on its budget. The convention was budgeted at K35, 000 million but he said they managed to raise K20 million.
He argued that MCP is not only the first party to postpone a convention citing DPP which postponed its convention and even at the eleventh hour changed the convention venue from Lilongwe to Blantyre.
“After all we are not the only party which postponed the convention. DPP just postponed its convention, actually they changed venue from Lilongwe to Blantyre.
“A true supporter of MCP will understand this situation . We have to organize properly,” said Njobvuyalema.
He indicated that the convention may be held in June at the earliest or August at the latest.
Meanwhile, the party has unveiled an eight-point checklist to be used in short-listing eligible candidates for various positions.
Based on the criteria developed by an accreditation committee, some of the hopefuls for NEC positions, including presidential aspirants, could be disqualified and barred from contesting.
Presidential hopefuls who have presented their nominations papers include former cabinet minister Jodder Kanjere, Malawi Assemblies of God president Rev Dr Lazarus Chakwera, current secretary general Chris Daza, former chief Justice Lovemore Munlo, former MCP secretary general Beston Majoni, former Farmers Union of Malawi (Fum) President Felix Jumbe and former MCP director of political affairs Eston Kakhome.
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