PP snubs calls to unveil manifesto ahead of official campaign period
Officials of the Malawi’s ruling People’s Party (PP) says the party will not unveil its manifesto until the onset of the official campaign period despite calls from voters to all political parties contesting the May polls to release the documents for scrutiny.
Speaking during the Sunday Round Table Program on Capital Radio, PP’s deputy publicity secretary Ken Msonda, said although the party’s manifesto is ready it would be suicidal for the party to release it this time around.
“The document is ready but we can’t release it now. We need to follow electoral calendar. When the campaign period kick starts we will unveil it. Malawi’s politics is dynamic; doing things at a wrong time can land one into serious problems so what we are doing now is respecting democratic values and principles,” said Msonda.
Msonda said there was no need for people to be pushing for the release of the manifesto saying most of the development works done in the country are the products of the party’s manifesto.
“We are talking about infrastructure development programs, issues to do with availability of drugs in hospitals are some of issues which are in our manifesto,” he said.
However a social and political commentator Unandi Banda said during the program that it’s high time the political parties release their manifestos to enable the voters have enough time to scrutinize the documents.
“We understand that the country has now over 50 registered political parties. So delays in release their manifestos would give voters problem in the sense that they will not have a chance to look at the documents critically as result this would make them chhose the wrong candidates, “he said.
According to the hosts of the program, Timothy Kateta and Rhodes Msonkho, representatives from the opposition United Democratic Front and Democratic Progressive Party failed to participate in the panel discussion program despite their assurance that they will participate.
However some contributors to the programs said Malawi’s political parties are failing to unveil their manifestos because they have nothing to offer Malawians as all the political parties were born from one party which failed Malawians big time.
