The United Democratic Front (UDF) president, Atupele Muluzi, who is also Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister, reacting from critics who are unhappy with the direction he is taking the UDF, has said will reveal his plans for the party sooner rather than later.
Muluzi said this on Friday at Parliament in Lilongwe when journalists pressed him for clarification following the movement of the party’s members in the House to Government side, and the embarrassment he experienced from the party’s leader in the house, Lucius Banda, who refused to join DPP but insisted on remaining on the opposition side.
“Mr. Ndanga is preparing a statement and we will be holding a press briefing very soon on the matter,” said Muluzi, who refused commenting further on the matter.
UDF parliamentarians’ movement to the government’s side in the house with its leader Lucius Banda still on opposition side has attracted a lot of comments within and outside the house. Other party leaders have quietly supported Lucius Banda unsure of the motives of Atupele Muluzi and where he intends to take the party
The leader of UDF in the House, Lucius Banda, wrote the speaker earlier in the week that he would maintain his seat on the opposition side while still maintaining his role as leader of UDF in the house, showing schism in the party hierarchy.
Meantime while Lucius Banda was bemoaning lack of rebuttal speech from the UDF to Mutharika’s state of the nation address, Shanil Mbilizi former wife to Bakili Muluzi was praising the DPP Government on the actions in took in handling the Malawi floods and the aftermath. Commenting on Mutharika’s State of the Nation Address in parliament, another prominent member of the UDF Patel said Mutharika was walking the talk on transformation of the nation
“In the first year and first term of His Excellency, President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, government has indeed fulfilled our promises,” said Patel, UDF Member of Parliament for Mangochi South.
Lucius Banda said he would continue to support government as he had done before regardless of where he sits in parliament
