By Vincent Gunde
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Media Team in the East says it is alarmed by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera’s blatant attempt to buy voters in the Eastern Region with unlawful handouts he was dishing out to various groups of people while he was in the Region at Chikoko bay Lodge in Mangochi district.
First to react, was social commentator Onjezani Kenani who wrote on his face book page asking President Chakwera to address Malawians of what is happening at the Chikoko Bay Lodge that ever since his arrival, there have been visitors and visitors coming to the Lodge for meetings with him.
Kenani said a source who is living close to the Lodge was monitoring events where he has been seeing buses, lorries, minibuses and this was joined by MDF and Police TATAs ferrying people to the Lodge to dine with the President.
According to Kenani’s source, everyday there were alleged to be over 5000 people visiting the Lodge but interestingly, all the visitors were carrying with them national Identity Cards and Mec voter registration certificates.
In Lilongwe, President Chakwera has been meeting chiefs, women and youth groups from all parts of central region districts including teachers from Dedza and Nkhotakota that in the end, went away with the K50,000s and Chiefs K80,000 plus left-over foods as a token of appreciation for visiting the State House.
The DPP Media Team in the East says this desperate move is a clear violation of electoral laws and undermines the integrity of the country’s democratic process but in all of these concerns raised to Mec, it has done completely nothing.
In the parliamentary budget for the 2025/2026 financial year, State House was allocated a whooping sum of K67 billion leading to millions of Malawians raising questions that what will this money do at the State House, people have now the answers that K67 billion is for handouts to entice the voters vote for President Chakwera to bounce back into government.
The DPP Media Team says President Chakwera is using state resources to fund his handouts which is a clear abuse of power in a quest to remain in government saying handouts are blatant attempts to buy votes from vulnerable citizens compromising their freedom to make informed choices.
“President Chakwera’s actions demonstrate a disregard for electoral laws and regulations, setting a dangerous precedent,” reads the DPP Media Team statement in part.
The Media Team has condemned President Chakwera’s actions in the strongest terms possible saying as Party, they believe in free, fair, transparent and credible elections urging the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) to take immediate action and investigate these allegations.
The Team has finally called on all Malawians to reject these handouts and vote with their conscience describing President Chakwera’s unlawful handouts as an insult to the democratic process and the people of Malawi promising to continue to expose these antics for a free and fair electoral process.
