Peoples Party (PP) president Joyce Banda has confirmed that she will be on the ballot paper during the 2025 Presidential Election.
Speaking during the party’s ongoing national elective conference in Lilongwe, also hinted that they are in discussion with Mafunde for a possible political alliance.
“We have been discussing with Mafunde to see if we can work together, even the party’s president George Mnesa proposed the same. So, the deal will be finalized tomorrow with the incoming executive committee,” she said
Mafunde party members led by Mnesa attended the conference.
Banda said Malawians need her as president at the time when people in the country are going through a difficult time.
“Our economy is not in good shape and it is bound to get worse. Over 5-million Malawians are food insecure and need food assistance. I am yet to be convinced with our national response strategy to holistically address perpetual food insecurity in this country. Unemployment levels amongst our youths, who are the backbone of our economy, continues to be worrisome.
“Many of our people in the southern region who were hit hard by cyclone Freddy over a year ago are still in camps with no proper shelter. Those that heeded the call to relocate are going through dehumanizing experience. These and many other challenges have inflicted untold misery on most of us such that many Malawians seem to have lost hope and resigned to fate,” she said
The former president said almost 12 years ago, Malawi found itself in a similar precarious situation when the country could literally run out of fuel, but she changed the situation soon after taking over.
Banda, as vice Malawi president then, became President in 2012 after the death of the then leader Bingu Wa Mutharika.
“People would que up at filling stations for days to no avail. The country’s economy was on its knees. Our import cover was at one week. Power blackouts were the order of the day. Our health sector was crumbling. In fact every social and economic sector was limping with no hope insight,” she said
Banda said there is no any government that has achieved of come closer to 6 percent economic growth since her leadership.
“The PP government’s Economic Recovery Plan-ERP was the blue print that breathed new life into most of the country’s social and economic sectors, as we identified and focused on key economic drivers to resuscitate the economy.
“In the two years of the Peoples Party government, we added 64 megawatts to the national power grid that dealt with incessant power outages. With increased and reliable power, our manufacturing industry increased its production output and averted massive job retrenchments that were planned due to production bottlenecks,” she said
The party is expected to elect new leaders tomorrow.
