MCP re-elects Tembo as 2009 presidential candidate

The country’s oldest political organisation, the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), has re-elected party president John Tembo to lead it to the 19 May 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections in the country, APA learnt here Monday.

The former ruling and founding party of the Malawi nation, held a weekend convention in the capital Lilongwe where Tembo’s name got the delegates’ approval to be the party’s flag bearer in the forthcoming polls.

The veteran politician, accepting the nomination, called on his supporters to unite behind him during the elections if they want the party to return to power after it lost grip of the country in 1994 following 31 years of uninterrupted iron-hand rule.

"We all would like our party to be in the next government. And this can only happen if there is unity, obedience and discipline in the party," he said.

Tembo, a much feared politician during the single party rule of the late President Kamuzu Banda, vehemently opposed the reintroduction of multiparty politics in Malawi in the early 1990’s, forcing the country to hold a referendum in 1992 to determine if Malawians preferred to dispose of the single Malawi Congress party rule.

To Tembo’s dismay, Malawians overwhelmingly opted for multiparty democracy in the referendum results.