(MENAFN- The Maravi Post) KARONGA-(MaraviPost)-The governing Democratic Progress Party (DPP) is said to be panicky over current political atmosphere that shows lost public trust in its leadership ahead of the 2019 general elections.
This DPP panic is demonstrated with recent tactics the Party is using to woe members of other parties to join its membership.
In Karonga, District Council chairperson, Ernest Mwaluwali, who defected to the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), claims that he was approached by the ruling Party operatives were collecting names of members of other political parties to sweet-talk them into joining the DPP. Mwaluwali reports that he snubbed them.
He disclosed that a paper was circulating at the rally President Peter Mutharika held in Chitipa recently, when he officially commissioned the Chitipa Water Supply Project.
The District Council Chairpeson accused the DPP Secretary-General of including Mwaluwali's on the list of people that joined the DPP during the President's development rally.
'I was told that those who would write their names on it would be given a chance to greet the President at the podium. I realized it was a trick and I ignored it. This is a desperate move by the DPP. But it won't work,' challenged Mwaluwali.
Mwaluwali's claims come at a time when another concerned individual, Maquenda Chunga, made a similar assertion that his name was announced by DPP Secretary General as one of those that had defected to the ruling Party.
This was done during the President's Mzimba development rally.
Chunga claims that he had no prior knowledge of what would transpire hearing that his name on the defectors list.
'After my name was called I, indeed, went and shook hands with the President because I did not want to embarrass him. It was also a security precaution on my part, because I doubt if DPP loyalists would have let me free had I refused,' Chunga explained.
But DPP campaign director, Jappie Mhango, distanced the Party from the allegations; he said they were baseless and unfounded.
Mhango argued that the Party has an open door policy that gives everyone the liberty to join or leave it.
He therefore refuted Mwaluwali's claims arguing that it would be a security threat if people are called willy-nilly to meet the President on the podium.
'On the part of Maquenda Chunga, working with, and joining the Party, are two different things. He did not say he was joining the Party, but said at Chintheche (in Nkhata Bay) during President Mutharika's stop-over on his way to the Northern Region recently, that he would work with the President and his Government,' Mhango said.
Chancellor College-based political analyst, Mustapha Hussein, said, if the reports are true, the ruling Party's actions are unethical political tactics.
Hussein advised that person should not be tricked to join a political party, but willingly join a party of his or her choice, based on one's principles.
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