DPP to mark first death anniversary of Bingu wa Mutharika
Malawi’s former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plans to hold a service in April 2013 to celebrate the life and achievements of the party’s founder and former head of state late Bingu wa Mutharika.
The service is one of the several activities the party has lined up in 2013 which also includes its first ever national convention.
“We have numerous plans for the New Year 2013, and among the important events is the commemoration of one year of Bingu’s passing,” DPP Spokesperson Nicholas Dausi told MIJ Radio Station.
The party spokesman observed that there were a lot of things late Mutharika achieved, both as an ordinary citizen as well as Malawi’s ruler, that require a great honour.
The commemorations, Dausi said, are likely to be held on April 5, a day which Mutharika died.
Among late Mutharika’s major political achievements were attainment of state presidency in 2004 under the banner of the then ruling party, United Democratic Front (UDF), and the founding of the DPP which went on to rule the country between February 2005 and April 2012.
Late Mutharika, who died on April 5, 2012 after succumbing to a cardiac arrest at the New State House, now Kamuzu Palace, in Lilongwe, ruled Malawi from May 2004.
Meanwhile, the party has also revealed that it has finished developing its blue print which contains the key issues and strategies that will help in the process of transforming the lives of Malawians.
The blue party will be holding its first national convention in seven years on 18th and 19th April 2013 at the Bingu wa Mutharika International Conference to elect a National Governing Council and its presidential candidate for the 2014 Tripartite Elections.
Immediately, after Mutharika’s death, senior party officials met and appointed the former president’s young brother, Peter, as acting president who has also already expressed interest to vie for the position during its April indaba.
