Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aspirant in Lilongwe Nsinja South constituency Mustafa MacDonald has become the first person to collect nomination forms ahead of the by-election slated for next month.
Constituency Returning Officer for the area Betrina Chidzibwa confirmed this development on Monday.
“Right now it is only the DPP candidate who has collected the nomination forms and he did so on Sunday when he came to submit names of party monitors for the voter registration exercise,” said Chidzibwa.
According to the electoral calendar, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) will receive nomination forms on 8 March.
So far, it is only the DPP and ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) who have expressed interest to feature candidates in the 30 March by-election though the latter is yet to identify a candidate as almost 12 people are vying for its ticket.
It is expected that MCP and DPP will have to battle it out against a horde of independent candidates emanating from the governing party’s primary elections fallout.
The 30 March by-election is being held in the area following the death of veteran MCP legislator Lingson Belekanyama who until his death also served as Minister of Local Government.