Lilongwe, Malawi, December 02: The three aspiring Presidential candidates for the Football Association Malawi (FAM) will this Saturday 5 December face off in a television and radio live debate.
The debate which will be held at Bingu Conference Centre in Lilongwe will be a curtain raiser for 12 December general assembly that will be held at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in the eastern provincial tourist destination town of Mangochi.
During the event in Mangochi a new executive committee and president to run the country’s soccer affairs the next four years will be ushered into office.
The debate which will be held at Bingu Conference Centre in Lilongwe will be a curtain raiser for 12 December general assembly that will be held at Sunbird Nkopola Lodge in the eastern provincial tourist destination town of Mangochi.
During the event in Mangochi a new executive committee and president to run the country’s soccer affairs the next four years will be ushered into office.
Managing Director of private owned, Zodiak Broadcasting Service (ZBS), Gospel Kadzako who has organized the event confirmed the development saying the event will be aired live on both its radio and television stations.
“It is true we have organised a Presidential elections debate for the candidates who will compete for the position of Football Association of Malawi (Fam) president,” said Kadzako.
ZBS told a local radio station that his organisation has decided to organise the initiative to promote institutional democratic governance values in the country.
He disclosed that all the three aspiring candidates, incumbent FA president, Walter Nyamilandu Manda, as well as, challengers; Willy Yabwanya Phiri and Wilkins Mijiga have confirmed their availability to the event.
Meanwhile, some of the aspiring candidates seeking leadership positions at the soccer governing body have accused the FA electoral committee of favouring the incumbent committee.
They alleged that the committee has been evasive on publishing the voters roll of delegates that will cast votes during the 12 December polls.
“If in Malawi general elections a list of millions of registered voters are released to opposition for inspection, why should FAM hide 36 names of delegates to the general assembly? That is unacceptable,” said presidential aspirant Yabwanya Phiri.
He added that the FA needed to treat the issue of the voters roll in the same manner it had done in releasing the list of candidates that had shown interest to take part in the soccer governing body electoral contest to the public.
“The best practice was to publicise the voters roll just like they did with the candidates list. Otherwise any attempt to withhold the list obviously means they want only those that are already in FAM executive Committee to have access to it and for the obvious reasons,” he observed.
Yabwanya Phiri is not alone his sentiments has had added weight from another candidate, Tiya Somba-Banda who is gunning for the position of vice president.
Somba-Banda accused the FA electoral committee for not adhering to the principle of fairplay he said if the voters roll will not be made available to the competing candidates’ transparency will not be attained.
“The principle of football is fairplay and it is strange that the authorities are failing to live by this principle. We can’t have a transparent election when the voters roll is a secrete,” he observed.
However, FAM chief executive officer, Suzgo Nyirenda told a local daily that the demands made by the aspiring candidates are out of touch with the Article 22 of the FA current statutes.
He argued that the FA is not legally obliged to release the voters roll to the election committee as demanded by the aspiring candidates saying it is there for accreditation and logistical purposes.
But he was quick to add that the FA will at some stage release the list to the electoral committee for verification.
“It is true we have organised a Presidential elections debate for the candidates who will compete for the position of Football Association of Malawi (Fam) president,” said Kadzako.
ZBS told a local radio station that his organisation has decided to organise the initiative to promote institutional democratic governance values in the country.
He disclosed that all the three aspiring candidates, incumbent FA president, Walter Nyamilandu Manda, as well as, challengers; Willy Yabwanya Phiri and Wilkins Mijiga have confirmed their availability to the event.
Meanwhile, some of the aspiring candidates seeking leadership positions at the soccer governing body have accused the FA electoral committee of favouring the incumbent committee.
They alleged that the committee has been evasive on publishing the voters roll of delegates that will cast votes during the 12 December polls.
“If in Malawi general elections a list of millions of registered voters are released to opposition for inspection, why should FAM hide 36 names of delegates to the general assembly? That is unacceptable,” said presidential aspirant Yabwanya Phiri.
He added that the FA needed to treat the issue of the voters roll in the same manner it had done in releasing the list of candidates that had shown interest to take part in the soccer governing body electoral contest to the public.
“The best practice was to publicise the voters roll just like they did with the candidates list. Otherwise any attempt to withhold the list obviously means they want only those that are already in FAM executive Committee to have access to it and for the obvious reasons,” he observed.
Yabwanya Phiri is not alone his sentiments has had added weight from another candidate, Tiya Somba-Banda who is gunning for the position of vice president.
Somba-Banda accused the FA electoral committee for not adhering to the principle of fairplay he said if the voters roll will not be made available to the competing candidates’ transparency will not be attained.
“The principle of football is fairplay and it is strange that the authorities are failing to live by this principle. We can’t have a transparent election when the voters roll is a secrete,” he observed.
However, FAM chief executive officer, Suzgo Nyirenda told a local daily that the demands made by the aspiring candidates are out of touch with the Article 22 of the FA current statutes.
He argued that the FA is not legally obliged to release the voters roll to the election committee as demanded by the aspiring candidates saying it is there for accreditation and logistical purposes.
But he was quick to add that the FA will at some stage release the list to the electoral committee for verification.
“The delegates list is there to assist [the FA] to do accreditation and for logistical matters. The electoral committee will be given the list once we verify with the delergates names and photos with each affiliate.
“All Correspondence will be direct to each affiliate as it has been since we started with a notice,” said Nyirenda in email response.
“All Correspondence will be direct to each affiliate as it has been since we started with a notice,” said Nyirenda in email response.
By: Joel Chirwa
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