Parliamentary Campaign Goes To Blantyre Roads, Schools
The campaign for Parliament in Blantyre Kabula constituency has reached crescendo levels as rival candidates explore new voters’ appeal strategies. The development has seen some of the candidates to either walking long distances to be seen by voters or visiting private secondary schools to win the support of the youth.
Topping the list of aspiring members of parliament who have resorted to exploiting new political campaign strategies are Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Rashid Gaffar and Felix Njawala, standing as an independent.
Gaffar is no new comer in the constituency, having served as MP in the March 20, 2009 dissolved parliament for the past five years, while Njawala is in to taste the political waters as he nourishes what he terms his long-held ambition to be a legislator.
Gaffar last week walked for an approximate distance of five Km from Chirimba through to Mbayani, two of the constituency’s many hot battlegrounds.
He former MP waved all the way, wearing a wide smile. He was clad in DPP colours. Prospective voters were visibly excited at the spectacle, as Gaffar is renowned for his many long vehicles. Walking such a relatively distance is not an everyday activity for him, as constituents have come to learn during the past five years.
Njawala, however, decided to be target-specific and visited Tafika and Tione Private Secondary Schools on Thirsday, where he gave out notebooks and writing materials christened in his name.
The aspiring independent candidate walked from one classroom to another in a bid to reach out to all students, and might have got his reward because the students cheered him on.
However, he run short of the notebooks and writing materials he had to promise he would come back to give out to the remaining students.
He has not gone back.
Both Gaffar and Njawala said they employed such strategies to reach out to all crucial groups in the constituency before May19, catches up with them.
They promised various development activities, with the issue of Mbayani dusty road topping the agenda. They both see it as an indicator of achievement.
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