Information emerging hours after former Vice President of the ruling Peoples’ Party (PP) for the South endorsed United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Atupele Muluzi as the one to win to be voted for in the May elections indicates that Mia had been pulling the strings in UDF from behind the curtains a long time.

“There have been MPs that have been getting funding from Mia and most of them are on the UDF ticket; ever since he quit PP, he has been funding the party,” said a source.

The source disclosed that Mia had met with the UDF founder Bakili Muluzi at his BCA hill residence in Blantyre and they had held a long discussion on his support to the party.

On the rumours that Mia had been contemplating of rejoining the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) the source said that Mia had held talks with some officials of the DPP but had eventually failed to reach a proper understanding.

“DPP approached Mia while he was still working with the UDF only that they never knew, he met them so that they could not think that he had completely turned them down but his allegiance was with the UDF,” the source maintained.

The source, however, could not disclose why DPP officials had found it incumbent to start announcing that Mia was joining them before the switch was finalised.