Mwanza Council fails to elect chairperson and vice

Mwanza District Council has failed to elect new chairperson and his vice for the current financial year as requirement by local council act that office bearers for the two offices be replaced annually.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency, District Commissioner for Mwanza, Michael Chimbalanga said that the members failed to reach consensus because there were ties twice during the election conducted during the council’s quarter meeting on Thursday to replace the outgoing office bearers whose tenure of office expired on June 29.

“Two names were nominated that of the seating chairperson, councilor, Bellon Kasambwe for (Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and his vice councilor, Kaisi Chimbalanga (independent).

The two were among the four councilors who contested for the seat but failed to come up with winner as both were coming up with three votes each,” said Chimbalanga.

Chimbalanga added that in the case of no chairperson or vice, all development projects which first go through service committees for scrutiny before full council will be on hold until the positions are filled.

The district commissioner described the failure to fill the two positions of council chair and vice as unfortunate to the people in the district.

“The service committee meetings cannot be called to discuss crucial issues because they need to get consent from either chairperson or vice of the council who do not exist,” explained Chimbalanga.

At council level there are seven committees: health and environment, planning and development, public works, human resource, finance, agriculture then education service committees whose meetings cannot be held because they are requiref to be approved by the council chairperson or vice.

Chairperson for Mwanza Youth Network, Moris Mtimauliranji described the failure to elect council chairperson and vice by the councilors as betrayal to the people in Mwanza.

He said councilors should forget their political differences and work together for the benefit of the people.

“Our councilors and parliamentarians should put their personal interests aside and should prioritize the welfare of the communities they serve,” he complained.

Mwanza District has two legislators, a councilor for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and another councilor for Malawi Congress Party (MCP) plus two independent councilors.

Director of Finance for Mwanza Council, Mussa Karonga said that about MK1 million is spent on financial logistics and stationery and other things to conduct a full council.

“With limited financial resources it expensive on our part to conduct an activity twice in a quarter,” explained Karonga.