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MALAWI’S newly elected President Peter Mutharika has said he is offering an “olive branch” to ex-leader Joyce Banda after winning disputed elections.He was addressing thousands of supporters at a ceremony to celebrate his inauguration as president.
Mutharika was charged with treason in March 2013 after being accused of plotting a coup. He denied the charge.
Banda failed in a bid to annul Mutharika’s victory in last month’s election.
She called for a re-election, saying the election had been marred by widespread fraud.
However, Banda conceded defeat after the High Court ordered the release of the results on Friday.
She is the first serving Malawian president to lose an election.
Mutharika is Malawi’s former foreign minister and brother of Bingu wa Mutharika, the late president who unexpectedly died in office in 2012.
Official results showed Banda came third with 20 percent of the vote.
Mutharika won with 36 percent of the vote, while former preacher Lazarus Chakwera was in second place with 28 percent.
Banda did not attend Mutharika’s inauguration ceremony in the main city, Blantyre.
“I look forward to shaking hands with her to bury the past. I come to her with an olive branch. Don’t let it drop,” he said.
Correspondents say Mutharika’s treason trial is unlikely to go ahead as he now enjoys presidential immunity.
An official inquiry found he had asked the military to take over after his brother’s death in 2012.
The military refused, opening the way for Banda, then the deputy leader, to assume the presidency, the inquiry found.
Banda’s presidency was marred by the biggest corruption scandal in Malawi’s history, in which millions of dollars worth of public money were allegedly stolen by civil servants.
It led to donors cutting aid. Malawi is heavily dependent on aid, which provides 40 percent of the government’s budget.
Meanwhile, Mutharika, pledged to target 7.5 percent annual growth over the next five years and fight corruption during a speech at his inauguration.
Mutharika said his government will also focus on investing in infrastructure and improving food supplies in a country where about half of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
Mutharika pledged to prosecute anyone guilty of corruption and make efforts to recoup money stolen during the “Cashgate” scandal, in which 13.5 billion Malawi kwacha ($34 million) disappeared from government coffers between April and the end of September 2013.
Banda, who earlier called for a new election because of what she termed “rampant irregularities,” didn’t attend the innauguration.
Mutharika’s election victory probably won’t herald a return of foreign aid that was suspended over corruption fears last year, according to Robert Besseling, an analyst with IHS Country Risk in London. Before it was cut, donor assistance financed about 40 percent of the budget.
“Foreign aid is unlikely to be restored in 2014,” he said today in an e-mailed statement. Non-payment risk to the tobacco and construction sectors, which are contracted by the state, will be high through 2014.”
Malawi is Africa’s biggest exporter of burley tobacco, a low-grade variety of the crop, and Limbe Leaf Tobacco Co, a unit of US-based Universal Corp. (UVV) buys the crop alongside companies like Alliance One International Inc (AOI) and Japan Tobacco Inc (2914).
Mutharika said yesterday economic stability and national unity would be the focus of his government.
“We will continue with traditional relationships, but we are now looking for new friends in emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Russia,” Mutharika said. — Bloomberg/Al Jazeera.
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