Sonke returns to frontline politics with UDF
Barely a few days after former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislature for Balaka West announced her joining the United Democratic Front (UDF) party, Jan Yap Sonke, former Kabula legislature seeks to stage a political comeback and has announced that he will contest in the constituency on the UDF ticket.
Sonke, a Dutch architect who once served as a deputy minister of finance during the UDF regime, went to the UDF headquarters in Limbe along with a hoard of party members Thursday where met the party southern regional committee leadership and expressed his intention to run on the party ticket.
At the meeting, Sonke told the committee that his standing is in response to a request from the party members in the constituency that he should stand as Member of Parliament under the UDF banner.
Sonke has his football-shaped house where he lives in the constituency, with his Malawian wife Thokozani.
UDF spokesperson Ken Ndanga confirmed the development and told Nyasa Times that there are more people to come who are willing to contest on the UDF ticket , saying they are only waiting for formal announcements.
” This demonstrates the confidence that Malawians have in the new UDF under the leadership of Atupele Muluzi. There are a lot of Malawians that have fallen in love with the new UDF and its leadership. Mr. Sonke is just a tip on the iceberg,” said Ndanga
He said Sonke is free to contest on the UDF ticket but will have to go through party primaries whose process has already started.
Ndanga said that the party will field candidates in all the 193 constituencies and all ward for councilors throughout the country.
On Monday the UDF party placed an advert in the newspapers calling aspirants for local government and parliament to buy nomination forms from the party.
According to the notice male aspirants for parliamentary primaries will pay K30,000 while females will pay k20,000.
For local government elections male aspirants will pay K10,000 as nomination fees while female aspirants will pay half of that.
Other notable personality who has expressed interest to contest on the party ticket is renowned marketing consultant, Mathews Ngwale who is standing in Chiradzulu.
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