Gwanda wants to ‘liberate’ Malawi against presidential dynasty
Plans by President Bingu wa Mutharika to have his brother, Peter, inherit power in 2014, will face a battle from a band of opposition politicians who will go flat out to fight “dynastyisation” of presidency, veteran opposition politician Gwanda Chakuamba has said.
Chakuamba, president of New Republican Party (NRP), says he has come out of political retirement to “liberate” Malawians against presidential coronation and authoritarian leadership style.
He also said Malawians will be sensitised to vehemently reject the notion of the close kin of a family member assuming the presidency or the top position changing within the same occupants of State House, saying it suggests more of the same.
Ruling DPP will be fielding President Mutharika’s brother, Peter, as its presidential candidate in 2014 elections.
Former president Bakili Muluzi’s son, lawmaker Atupele Muluzi is aspiring to join the presidential race under the banner of United Democratic Front (UDF).
Chakuamba, speaking on Capital FM Straight Talk programme aired on Thursday said “succession should not be in the family” and that Presidents should not be allowed to pass on the presidential baton to relation after he or she was through.
“If Mutharika comes to the end of his road, there must be some one and not Peter Mutharika, not another Mutharika,” said Chakuamba.
“As Muluzi came to the end of his road not another Muluzi, not in this generation,” he added.
He argued there were many able people amongst the 14 million Malawi population who can lead the country and not just from the same families which have been tenants at the State House.
“Let others try their best, not same families,” he said.
The veteran polician said he is back to fight tyranny, saying President Mutharika is “autocratic and intolerant of criticism”.
Chancellor College political lecturer Mustapha Hussein however said he does not believe Chakuamba’s return to frontline politics will have any “value.”
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