Tuesday, 07 September 2010 21:28

LILONGWE—Three contestants in a primary election in Lilongwe pulled out at the eleventh hour amid allegations of vote rigging.

Angry supporters of Thokozani Chisi of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused fellow party contestant and winner Halima Daudi of bringing people outside the constituency to vote. An allegation of vote rigging emerged before the poll was conducted, forcing three other contestants to withdraw their names.

As angry supporters castigated each other, police quickly removed the two contestants from the volatile situation. Sensing danger, some ruling party members also got in their cars and left the scene.

But the verbal assault wasn’t for the contesting parties only, senior party officials were also targeted as they were accused of allowing a tainted process to take place.

Ken Kandodo, who is also finance minister, was the bye-elections chair whose handling of the poll didn’t please Chisi’s supporters. But Kandodo dismissed allegations of fraud saying he was “satisfied with the conduct of this election.”

Daudi appealed for peace and unity among DPP supporters, saying what was important was for the party to get a candidate who would bring development to the area.

In the 2009 general elections, Daudi, a former councillor, stood as a candidate for opposition United Democratic Front but lost to DPPs Hastings Chitsamba whose death created a vacancy.

Daudi, who got 2220 votes against Chisi’s 280 in the DPP primary, will on October 12^th face off against 2009 general election runner up, opposition Malawi Congress Party’s Alfred Chika.--maravipost

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Tuesday, 07 September 2010 21:28

BLANTYRE--Retired Malawian president Bakili Muluzi, dogged by ill-health the past three years, was quoted on Sunday as saying he was not fit to stand trial for alleged corruption involving US$ 12 million of aid money he pocketed 11 years ago.

“I am not fit to stand trial because medical examination carried on Thursday has revealed that I still have spinal instrumental problem resulting from the three serious operations I had this year,” Muluzi, who retired in 2004 after two terms in office, told the local Sunday Times.

Muluzi, expected to go to court on September 10 to take a plea, spoke with the paper on his return from South Africa where he spent several weeks for specialised treatment.

He said: “I have been strongly advised to avoid strenuous activity and extensive and prolonged sitting and that I should return to hospital in two months time.”

Muluzi, who governed this impoverished southern African nation from 1994 to 20004, after wrestling power from long time dictator Kamuzu Banda, has been charged, along with his former personal assistant Liness Whiskey, with 86 counts for pocketing the money between April 1999 and November 2004.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has in the past said it had looked into payments made into Muluzi’s bank accounts from Libya, Rwanda, Morocco, Belgium, and Taiwan, several foreign and local firms.

Muluzi, whose business ventures are in real estate, media and transport, said he was being “persecuted and tortured” by the ACB, which has religiously pursued the case since 2006.

“What the ACB is doing to me is not prosecution but persecution and torture. The ACB should not be playing with people’s lives...I am tired of this political persecution by the ACB,” he said.

“I am accused of diverting donor money meant for the Malawi government into my personal account. Tell me which donor in the world would issue a cheque even as small as $2,000 meant to be paid to government into an individual account? You can ask any treasury man, that’s impossible,” Muluzi was quoted by the newspaper.

He asked: "By the way which donor has complained that I was given money meant for government and not account for it?"

The charges against the ex-president were first raised in 2006 after his arrest, but were dropped in a dramatic turn of events by the then director of public prosecutions Ishmael Wadi.

Incumbent president Bingu wa Mutharika, handpicked by Muluzi to succeed him in 2004, revived the charges in 2008 after the former president launched a fervent third term bid to unseat Mutharika in last year’s general elections.

Mutharika, an economist-turned president, has been at loggerheads with Muluzi since he ditched the former governing United Democratic Front to form his own Democratic Progressive Party, which enjoys the majority in the 193-member parliament.

Muluzi is the most senior figure since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 to face graft charges after Mutharika launched a sweeping anti-corruption drive soon after he assumed power in 2004.--maravipost

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