President of the official opposition party, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) McHenry Venaani has slammed President Hage Geingob for hypocrisy after the latter sent his congratulatory message to newly elected Malawian stateman, Lazarus Chakwera.
Venaani accused Geingob of not having stood by the people of Malawi in their grievances against last year’s rigged election while the regional leadership went on to congratulate the now defeated Peter Mutharika.
“That’s hypocrisy at its best. Many political parties are very hypocritical. They wanted President Chakwera to submit to president Mutharika to accept results as a means to a quick-fix solution but the people of Malawi stood firm and said that we will not allow our victory to be taken for a ride.
To hear president Mnangagwa now praising president Chakwera is the biggest hypocrisy that you will ever have. The very same man who said that Chakwera must accept defeat from Mutharika, a few months later now he is saying Mutharika must accept defeat. So, he has no political stand-point. We stand on the rule of law. For free and fair elections. If people are adamant, they must man the tenets of democracy without fear or favour. No matter who wins or no matter who loses. I always say that a loser must lose credibly. A winner must win credibly,” he said.
Venaani has said that the election result of Malawi has left them with lessons especially around forging alliances to wrestle power.
Chakwera led the Tonse Alliance which brought together various political parties, giving him a near 59% victory.
PDM failed to create a grand alliance of political parties in the run-up to the November 2019 elections while he managed to win over the United Democratic Party.
This is despite the fact that PDM agreed with some political outfits on how the elections should be conducted especially where it concerned the use of the Electronic Voting Machines.
Venaani said the political terrain of Malawi was not the same as that of Namibia which had too many opposition political outfits.
Chakwera is now set to create his government which according to media reports in Malawi will not be more than 30 ministers.