Malawi President Joyce Banda
President Banda said her decision to put the
youthful minister on her ticket was a way of showing commitment to
empowering and promoting the youth to take over the country’s
leadership.
Blantyre, Friday. Malawi
President Joyce Banda has picked her 37-year-old minister of Trade and
Industry Sosten Gwengwe as running mate in the upcoming elections,
sidelining current deputy Khumbo Kachali.
President Banda said her decision to put the
youthful minister on her ticket was a way of showing commitment to
empowering and promoting the youth to take over the country’s
leadership.
She said she had prayed over her choice of running
mate and had not doubt the youthful minister would deliver. The country
needed both youth and experience at the helm, she said.
“We say the youth are the leaders of tomorrow but
this statement denies the youth their rightful role in participating in
the development of the country (today),” she said.
Malawi holds a general election on May 20.
Mr Gwengwe will accompany President Banda on
Friday to present her nomination papers in Blantyre, among the last of
the candidates to do so.
Conspicuously missing at the Thursday press
conference that was Mr Kachali, but President Banda said she informed
him of her decision to opt for another running mate.
“I did not expect any reaction from him. I informed him of my decision and we hugged before he left,” she said.
Media in Malawi on Thursday quoted Mr Kachali
saying that if Mrs Banda din not nominate him as her running mate it
would be a vote of no confidence in him.
President Banda said the agreement with Mr Kachali
in 2012 when she had ascended to power following President Bingu wa
Mutharika’ s death was that he would only be her deputy for two years.
(AFP)
‘Ridiculed’
President Banda also said she had opted to
nominate a youthful man against a woman because she is aware of how
female leaders are ridiculed by Malawians in general.
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