By Durell Namasani
The Deputy Secretary general of Malawi Congress Party who is also the speaker of Parliament Hon Catherine Gotani has thanked Party members in the diaspora for Money donation towards election monitoring. She made the remarks in Mzuzu when a cheque of over K9 million kwacha was presented to the Tambala fund.
As the country goes to the polls on Tuesday The Diaspora wing of the opposition MCP under the banner Malawi Congress Party Diaspora Chapter (MCPDN) today made a donation of MK9 728920.43 million kwacha to the party in Malawi which will help in the cost of election monitoring.
Presenting the cheque to the party was the MCP Diaspora Malawi representative Dyson Chikolera. Speaking to 247Malawi media , Chikolera said his colleagues in the diaspora saw the need to help the party in Malawi. “ It’s a crucial election , we want to make sure we secure our vote by having enough monitors , we have won past elections but didn’t do enough to secure our vote leaving a loophole that led to election rigging, we want to close that this time” said Chikolera .
Also present at the presentation was MCP Regional Chairman for the North Hon Gracious Soko who welcomed the donation describing it as timely and vital. Gotani Hara said the party in Malawi is grateful to its members in the diaspora “ Let me thank all our members in diaspora and all other well wishers for this donation, it has been our wish to make sure we have strong monitoring for the election in order to safeguard our vote “ said Gotani Hara
MCP Diaspora Network is an umbrella group that comprises of regional groups from Canada, Republic of Ireland , USA , Canada, RSA ,UK and members of Malawian origin from various countries a round the world all of whom contributed towards this donation.
The Spokesperson of the group, Chalo Mvula highlighted that the group had to identify an area it could help the party in Malawi with during this election “ We sat down and thought monitoring is key and we embarked on fundraising to make sure we donate something towards this . Let me thank all MCP Diaspora members from all our wings in Ireland, Canada, USA ,UK RSA and all the other countries for their donations despite the challenges that were there -it just shows that though we are not in Malawi still we care for our country” Mvula said.
Mvula was also quick to acknowledge members of others parties from Tonse alliance who patronised some of the fundraising events “We are very thankful for the support from our colleagues from Parties in Tonse alliance , there support helped us reach the amount we have reached and it just highlights the unity and positive working relationship that is there in Tonse Alliance”
Malawi goes to the polls on Tuesday 23 to elect a new president With Tonse Alliance Torch Bearer Dr Lazarus Chakwera , the favourite to win.
