Political scientist suggests city residents should be voting in council polls

A renowned political scientist has suggested that a law should be amended to allow residents vote in city council elections.

Boniface Dulani of Chancellor College, a constituent of the University of Malawi,  said election results in Blantyre indicate that residents were not happy with the loss of Noel Chalamanda as Mayor.

Wild Ndipo of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the election.

“Residents seemed not to have been happy with the results. They wanted Mr Chalamanda but political parties had their own candidates in mind,” he said.

He then suggested the laws can be changed so that residents should be voting especially in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, the country’s major cities.

Dulani said the same happens in South Africa and the US where mayors are elected into office by residents through votes.

In Malawi, councillors and members of parliament elect mayors and deputy mayors.

Ndipo says he will continue with development projects left by Chalamanda, saying after all, he was deputy mayor when the hard working and creative Chalamanda was mayor of the commercial city.