Mutharika shakes up DPP campaign team: Nankhumwa in charge of elections, Ben Phiri not included

With the May 21 tripartite elections just three weeks away, the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has set up two special stand-alone elections campaign committees to boost its campaign and ensure victory is right in their bag at the polls.

Local Government and Rural Development Minister and DPP vice president for Southern Region, Kondwani Nankhumwa, confirmed President Professor Arthur Mutharika had constituted special technical and operations committees in order to decentralize DPP campaign at national level.

The President has appointed him (Nankhumwa) to chair both committees.

Nankhumwa has become a political force to be reckoned with within the upper echelons of the ruling party.

He has recently been appointed by President Mutharika to represent him at various State functions, articulating the DPP’s vision for this country with above-average zeal and temerity.

In his message delivery, Nankhumwa outlines the development that the DPP government has accomplished under Mutharika in various sectors such as energy, infrastructure development, health, education, agriculture, among others.

According to Nankhumwa, the elections campaign committee members include senior DPP officials, technocrats as well as various opinion leaders.

He declined to mention names.

“There are many of us who sit on these committees. I would not be able to mention all the names,” Nankhumwa told Nyasa Times in an interview on Tuesday.

He said the President realizes that the DPP national secretariat and the party’s lower structures cannot fully implement the campaign alone and hence the need for stand-alone committees, which must complement the party’s efforts to reach out to each and every voter ahead of the polls next month.

Nankhumwa said, for example, the upcoming polls will be “youth elections” because the majority of registered voters are youths.

Women also make a significant number of those that have registered to vote in this election, added Nankhumwa.

“It is critical, therefore, for the DPP to come up with youth and women mobilization strategies in order to consolidate its winning chances. So, massive youth and women mobilization is one of the responsibilities of these committees. Obviously, we will also be looking at resource mobilization as well as other crucial areas that would constitute a successful elections campaign,” explained the VP-south.

He said President Mutharika is aware that most DPP politicians will be preoccupied with campaigning to win in their respective constituencies. Hence members of these stand-alone committees, most of who will not be running for any political office, will engage with different population groups and form relationships with them in order to ensure that  Mutharika and DPP indeed win with a landslide victory on May 21 2019.

As part of this ‘strategy’, the party has also identified “party linchpins” and appointed them as Zone Champions to manage, coordinate and oversee elections campaign in two districts each across the country.

According to Nankhumwa, in southern region the party has appointed Foster Khuleya as Zone Champion for Mwanza and Neno, Rashid Issa for Nsanje and Chikwawa, Brown Mpinganjira for Thyolo and Mulanje, Leston Mulli for Phalombe and Chiradzulu and a Mr. Busiri for Blantyre.

The DPP campaign was being spearheaded by Ben Phiri as director of elections, but following the appointment of Nankhumwa to be chair of the elections, he has technically been dropped.

This follows his recent  offensive remarks to the former First Lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri during a DPP campaign in Balaka.

Both the DPP and First Lady Gertrude Mutharika e reprimanded Phiri over the remarks in which he said former president Bakili Muluzi divorced Shanil because she is not good in bed.

He was also scandalised  by Sandra ‘Andu’ Ntonya a famous Manchester- based escort girl who posted on social media of his  x-rated pictures.

Andu, who normally films her “clients” posted the nude photos on Twitter and scandalised Phiri on Facebook through her ‘live’ shows.

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