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Secretary General for People’s Party Paul Maulidi, has sued former president Joyce Banda and the party for ordering him to withdraw from the by-election race in Blantyre North.
The by-election is scheduled for October 7, 2014. Maulidi disclosed this in an interview Friday, saying he has spent about K72 million on campaign since July last year.
“I want to seek the court’s guidance as regards to whether it is possible for a party to stop an individual to contest, yet this is a constitutional right. I tried to reason with the former president on my stand but she stood by her decision,” said Maulidi, who is representing himself in the case.
He also pointed out that his argument is not much on the money he has spent but the constitutional right violation since he believes every citizen has the right to contest in an election.
“I won the primaries and did campaign ahead of the May 20 tripartite elections before one candidate died in Blantyre North Constituency. I was not campaigning for my parliamentary seat only but also the former president and this involved a lot of money,” he said.
According to Maulidi, he will withdraw from the race if the court says that a party has the mandate to stop someone from contesting and go ahead to contest if the court tells him so.
“As it is now, I’m ready to contest as I already submitted my nomination papers. In addition to that, my constituents are demanding that I represent them in Parliament,” he said.
Both Banda’s spokesperson Andekuche Chanthunya and PP’s publicist Ken Msonda did not pick up our calls on Thursday.
After getting in touch Mr Msonda, he said the party made a decision to pull out of the race after losing confidence in the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).
But Msonda told The Daily Times on Thursday that Maulidi could not proceed with the contest.
“We know that our Secretary General is a smart man. And I know he cannot take a lead in compromising party policies. We trust that he will do the right thing,” he said.
Blantyre North did not participate in the May 20 parliamentary elections as a Malawi Congress Party candidate Harold Mulli died a week before the polls.
