APM asks Chakwera to halt rigging through IDs
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Peter Mutharika says President Lazarus Chakwera should stop rigging of votes through the national registration exercise.
He made the remarks yesterday at Katoto Secondary School ground in Mzuzu where he addressed a political rally.
Mutharika fears the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) government intend to use the National Registration Bureau (NRB) to rig elections, but did not clarify.
Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu was not immediately available to respond to Mutharika’s claims. However, the law mandates the Malawi Electoral Commission to recognise national IDs to register voters in elections.
As part of his three-point message to President Chakwera, Mutharika also called for an end to arrests, saying during his administration, he did not pounce on members of the civil society for bad-mouthing him.
“The Central Region should also be opened for all political parties to peacefully conduct their campaign activities,” he said.
At the start of his speech, Mutharika said all leadership wrangles that rocked the former governing party have been resolved.
He then said the DPP is now united after expelling members who were causing problems in the party.
Mutharika pledged unity and threatened to boot out all members who would be deemed to be stifling unity in the party.
He said the 2025 General Elections is the last he is contesting for the DPP and will be ready to support the party’s new leadership in 2030.
The DPP leader also took a swipe at Malawians, saying he is happy they learnt from the mistake of voting him out of power in the 2020 Fresh Presidential Election.
“You remember what I said in 2018? That evil will rule over this country and Malawi will be held hostage, but you did not listen to me? Mudzapanganso zopusa zimene zija? [Will you repeat that stupidity?],” he said.
He took a swipe at MCP, saying the governing party has failed to deliver on its campaign promises including construction of the Orton Chirwa International Airport.
Mutharika then patted himself on the back, saying during his administration, between 2014 and 2019, he executed about 39 development projects.
He said: “When we come back in government, we will decentralise power from the central government to the regions and districts. Government should be closer to the people.”
Commenting on Mutharika’s remarks, political analyst Wonderful Mkhutche said NRB is caught between a rock and a hard place as it has to conduct the national ID registration exercise amid massive distrust from political parties.
He argued that the registration exercise should still continue since it is guarded by law despite the prevailing antagonism from some stakeholders.
DPP vice-president (North)Jappie Mhango said Mutharika’s task is to fix the country’s economy which has been destroyed by the MCP administration.
