The US Embassy in Lilongwe has cleared Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader Peter Mutharika over the issue of citizenship saying he is not an American citizen, Weekend Nation can reveal.
The revelation by the United States of America government put to rest the fears that Mutharika, who is the DPP torch-bearer in 2014 presidential race, maybe barred by the law which does not allow a contestant to hold dual citizenship.
US Embassy public affairs officer Gabriel Hons-Clivier said in a questionnaire response in the week that Mutharika does not have an American citizenship but rather the green card.
Said Hons-Clivier; “I checked with the embassy, and I can respond that Professor Peter Arthur Mutharika is a green card holder, not an American citizen.”
But a legal expert says by holding the green card, it means Mutharika, though a citizen of Malawi, owes some allegiance to the USA, a thing which could lead to his candidacy being challenged in court for interpretation if the allegiance in the Constitution covers this kind of scenario.
Justice Link executive director Justin Dzonzi said legally, the green card is the US permanent resident card which is issued under the Homeland Security Act 2002 as an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of a foreigner living and working in the United States.
Dzonzi said the Malawi Constitution and Section 80 (6) states that a person does not qualify to stand for presidency unless s/he is a citizen of Malawi by birth or descent and has attained the age of 35 years while subsection 80(7) (d) further states that a person who owes allegiance to a foreign country is also not eligible to stand for presidential elections.
“The fact that a person has been issued with the green card does not mean s/he is a citizen but it is the first step towards becoming a naturalised citizen. The holder of a green card owes certain allegiances to the United States of America such as payment of taxes and maintaining a permanent residence in the United States,” said Dzonzi.
“This may require Prof. Peter Mutharika to take up residence in the US for periods of not less a month per year. So it is possible for people to challenge his candidacy based on this fact. It will be up to the courts to define whether the term ‘owe allegiance’ covers this situation or not,” he said.
However, he added: “It is clear that Prof. Peter Mutharika remains a citizen of Malawi by birth and unless he expressly renounces his citizenship under the Malawi Citizenship Act, no one can deprive him of this status.”
He also said Mutharika could not be barred from contesting based on the court proceedings unless he has been proven guilty but he observed that the cases could discourage or frighten DPP supporters into thinking that their party would not participate in the polls.
And such speculation may not be entirely without merit if history is any accurate guide on the issue. We saw this during the 2009 elections where the candidacy of the former president Dr. [Bakili] Muluzi was challenged when elections were just around the corner and UDF was forced to go into an electoral alliance with MCP mainly because it did not have a presidential candidate,” he said.
“So it maybe prudent for DPP to seriously think of the possibilities that underlie the pending court cases against their torch bearer and come up with some quick alternatives in the event the worst happened,” he added.
Dzonzi said it would be unconstitutional to ask President Banda to intervene in the criminal proceedings involving Mutharika because Section 103(1) of the Constitution states that all courts and all persons presiding over those courts shall exercise their functions, powers and duties independent of the influence and direction of any other person or authority.
He, however, admitted that the cases facing Mutharika were all political in origination and that such cases were “subject to a lot of speculation of political manipulation and may in fact be so.”
The US Embassy clearance confirms what Mutharika has been saying all along that he holds his allegiance to Malawi only but that he has a 10-year multiple entry visa for the US through the green card and a 15-year multiple entry visa for United Kingdom.
In August this year, Yeremia Chihana, the evaluator of former president Bingu wa Mutharika’s deceased estate, filed a defence against a lawsuit by Peter Mutharika, in which he questioned the dual citizenship.
Reads the defence in part: The plaintiff [Peter] even though a professor of law and Member of Parliament [MP] still holds dual citizenship and effectively owes allegiance to a country, other than Malawi [being the United States of America].”
Chihana’s affidavit was in response to Mutharika’s lawsuit for allegedly damaging his reputation through a letter the property evaluator wrote, allegedly leaked to the media, regarding the former president’s estate.
In an interview on Tuesday, Mutharika through his personal assistant Ben Phiri said the issue of dual citizenship has never worried him as he prepares to contest the forthcoming presidential elections because he has never been a citizen of any other country apart from Malawi.
Said Phiri: “To him life is as normal as it was, only that it puts to rest speculation that has been running for so long.”
He said the speculations were originating from people who were desperate to see that Mutharika is barred from contesting the elections next year as he was a threat to their chances of winning.
Phiri also said 74-year-old Mutharika has never considered the pending court cases as having potential to prevent him from contesting the elections because he was aware that none of the cases had merit until proven otherwise in a court of law.
On what Public Affairs Committee (PAC) asked President Joyce Banda three weeks ago that her government would like to push the court cases towards 2014 as to bar some candidates from contesting the elections, Phiri said ignoring advice from such a body would be done at one’s risk.
