Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice president (North) Goodall Gondwe has demanded DPP members who are against the leadership of former President Peter Mutharika to leave the party.
Gondwe, a former Malawi Finance Minister, made the remarks in an interview with the local media.
“Those who do not agree [with Peter Mutharika] will have to leave the party, that’s how things are,” he said.
He, however, expressed hope that the party will come together.
Gondwe’s remarks come amid leadership wrangles in the DPP following Mutharika’s loss in the 2020 presidential elections.
There is a faction which wants Mutharika to resign as DPP leader and the party to hold a convention. Mutharika, who was re-elected as DPP president at a convention in 2018 and has a five-year mandate, has always maintained that he will leave the position in 2023.
In 2020, the DPP fired vice president (South) Kondwani Nankhumwa, Secretary General Jeffrey, Jappie Mhango and Mulanje West legislator Yusuf Nthenda after a battle over the position of Leader of Opposition in Parliament. DPP MPs chose Nankhumwa as Leader of Opposition but the party rejected Nankhumwa and instead chose Francis Kasaila. The expelled members went to court over the decision and the matter is yet to be concluded.
