HRDC petitions Mutharika on issues of national concerns

Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has petitioned President Peter Mutharika to address issues of national concern which rocked his first term of office in the presidency.

HRDC chairperson Timoth Mtambo said some of the issues in the petition include swift enactment of the electoral laws, which, among other issues, would abolish the first-past -the-post system of electing a president to adopt a 50+1 system.

“We are now at pains to accept the presidential election result. If we had the new electoral laws, some of these malpractices could have been dealt with,” said Mtambo.

Mtambo also says the petition calls on Mutharika to be serious in the investigations in the death of Robert Chasowa, a polytechnic fourth year student who was allegedly killed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the help of some police officers for his political activism.

Others whose deaths the HRDC want to be investigated include that of former Anti-Corruption Bureau senior official Issah Njauju and that of Buleya Lule who was murdered by police during interrogation.