The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has called for action against Malawi Congress Party (MCP) cabinet ministers Simplex Chithyola Banda and Ken Zikhale Ng’oma for giving out cash handouts during their campaign for senior party positions.
MLS president Patrick Mpaka told The Nation that they had written the Registrar of Political Parties to act on the two in line with Sections 2 and 41 as read with Section 44 of the Political Parties Act which criminalizes handouts by any candidate or any political party contesting or intending to contest in an election under the law.
“Otherwise, that office and the law it administers will be of no use and will be bypassed by cunning politicians or it will end up protecting those that it is supposed to hold accountable on behalf of the people of Malawi, he said
Despite Registrar Kizito Tenthani’s remarks that the Act defines a candidate as a person nominated to contest in presidential, parliamentary and local government elections, Mpaka said the office should be interested in exploiting the law and collaborate with other entities such as Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to ensure compliance at all levels.
Chithyola Banda, Minister of Finance and Economic, handed out K500 000 to each of the 105 delegates he met in Lilongwe while Ng’oma of Homeland Security also disbursed about K45 million to delegates in.
Chithyola Banda and Ng’oma are vying for the party’s secretary general position at the party’s upcoming national convention slated for August.
