Battle for soul of DPP

When the former ruling party convened a National Governing Council meeting last week, it was hoped that this would lead to the ironing out of the differences that have rocked the party for some time now. However, clashes are persisting

By Deogratias Mmana:

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Publicity Secretary Nicholas Dausi has claimed that the party’s National Governing Council (NGC) meeting held in Mangochi last week hid some of the contentious contents of the draft constitution.

He has, therefore, demanded that the party circulates the full copy of the document for appreciation of its details by the wider membership of the party.

But Shadric Namalomba, DPP and former president Peter Mutharika’s spokesperson, has dismissed Dausi, expressing surprise as to which constitution he is referring to for some of the proposals he claims.

In a Times Exclusive interview which airs tonight at 8:30pm on Times Television, Dausi claimed that many members of the NGC still demand that the party circulates the draft constitution for them to appreciate its contents before making their contributions.

According to him, the party is hiding the contents of the draft constitution because some of its proposals are weird. He said some members of the NGC will not accept them.

According to Dausi, the proposals include:

• The appointment of secretary general by the party’s president moving away from the current status where the secretary general is elected at a convention;
• The immediate past president becoming the party’s patron and member of the central executive committee;
• The president appointing 10 members of Parliament into the NGC moving away from the current position where all MPs for the party become members by virtue of being legislators.
• DPP members to start buying party cards as was the case during the Malawi Congress Party era before multi-party.
• Any member of the party who drags it to court should not be allowed to contest for any position.

Dausi also said the party has diverted away from the composition of disciplinary committee members who were previously elected but are now appointed.

“Some of these proposals are not right,” Dausi said.

“The procedure and process of the NGC meeting was not proper. There were no introductions to know which genuine NGC member was present. The new draft constitution was just presented in a PowerPoint instead of circulating it to the NGC members first so that they make proper contributions.

“We still demand that the draft constitution be sent to the NGC members,” Dausi said.

But in an interview yesterday, Namalomba dismissed Dausi’s claims. He dismissed that there are proposals:

• That the party president should be electing only 10 members of Parliament into the NGC.
• That the party plans to introduce membership cards
• That the disciplinary committee members will be appointed by the president. But he said the party announced some members of the disciplinary committee including Member of Parliament for Mulanje South West constituency [George Chaponda] before the meeting of the NGC.

“Which draft constitution [is Dausi referring to]? Please send a copy you are making reference to? Because under the proposed draft constitution I have, we do not have [some of the claims],” Namalomba said in reference to our questionnaire.

Executive Director for Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation Michael Kaiyatsa said any lack of intraparty democracy in DPP could spell doom as disgruntled members could simply leave and join other political parties.

“What is happening in the party is a sign that DPP leaders are not learning from previous mistakes.

“If the party seriously wants to win the next election, it needs to live up to its democratic ideals and ensure that everyone has an equal chance to contribute to the growth of the party,” he added.

At the meeting, DPP’s legal affairs director and a member of the functional review committee Charles Mhango presented the findings of the committee and the proposed recommendations following the mandate the committee was given in 2020 to review the party’s structures, functions and activities.

Among others, the committee was mandated to review all existing positions in the party and propose a streamlining of such positions so as to achieve necessary efficiencies.

It was also asked to review and propose amendments to the party constitution to ensure that it is realigned and in tandem with the new purposes, objectives and vision of the party and the new structure.

The committee was also asked to make such recommendations and proposals as may be necessary and incidental to the fulfilment of the renewed purposes, objectives and vision and the effective operation of the new structure.

According to a brief of resolutions that circulated on social media soon after the meeting last week, the party shifted its national conference from July this year to July next year.

It said the change was made to allow the party to adopt some of the constitutional changes that were made at the NGC meeting.

The meeting also recommended that people contesting for positions in the NGC must be only those that have been in the party for not less than three years.

The NGC meeting also endorsed Mutharika as the party’s torchbearer for the 2025 president elections subject to a nod by the majority of the party’s delegates to the July 2024 elective conference.

Mutharika said he will make his decision on the matter.

The party also resolved to hold an extraordinary conference in December. At that meeting, among other things, the party will set a date for the elective conference in July next year.