adminBLANTYRE. — Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi has called on the people to bury their political differences and support new President Peter Mutharika so that he carries out his development agenda in a stable nation.
Muluzi, who was the first leader to rule Malawi after the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1994, left office to his hand-picked successor, the late president Bingu wa Mutharika in 2004, said he has hope the new leader will spur development in the country.
He said it was time “to move forward and work together towards building this nation.”
“Let us put our differences behind us and give the President support”, Muluzi appealed.
He also noted that developments leading to Mutharika being declared winner of the May 20 presidential elections proved that the judiciary was a “true pillar of our hard-won democracy.”
Noted Muluzi, “The judiciary has remained truly independent and preserved its integrity in a very difficult situation.”
Muluzi said violent scenes that took place before and after voting were regrettable and must never happen again because Malawi is internationally known as a peace loving country.
He saluted Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson Maxon Mbendera, his commissioners, staff and all electoral stakeholders for allowing sanity to prevail at a time the situation appeared to be going out of hand.
Muluzi was among the dignitaries that attended the inauguration of the President Mutharika on Monday, and he wished the president and his deputy, Saulos Chilima, success.
Meanwhile, Malawi will have a hung parliament as no party has an overall majority in the House with independents dominating parliamentary elections amassing 52 seats from 192 that were being competed for on May 20.
A hung parliament occurs when no single party has more than 50 percent of the seats in the National Assembly. In practice this means that it cannot rely solely on its own MPs to get its legislation through the house.
In declaring the official results in parliamentary and local government elections, MEC chair disclosed that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of President Mutharika won 50 seats, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) 48, Peoples Party secured 26, United Democratic Front (UDF) got 14 while Chipani Cha Fuko (Davis Chester Katsonga) and Aford (Enock Chihana) got a seat each.
When parliament meets, they will elect a Speaker and two deputies.
DPP will also provide Leader of the House while MCP’s leader Lazarous Chakwera automatically becomes the Leader of Opposition.
He won Lilongwe Rural North West constituency seat and will be making he is a rookie in the National Assembly.
There will be 162 male MPs in Parliament with women to occupy 30 seats.
While 401 male candidates have won local government elections as women managed to win 56 of the total 457 wards. — Nyasa Times-Herald Reporter.
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