Malawi ex-president Muluzi calls for talks with HRDC to pacify violent protests

Former president Bakili Muluzi has stepped in to end the current wave of protests and violence by calling for a meeting with the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) as the leadership of the grouping has confirmed and accepted.

A letter from the office of the former president dated July 22, 2019 and duly signed by Muluzi, is calling the HRDC chairperson Timothy Mtambo and his HRDC team on Tuesday, July 23, 2019.

“Given the current volatile situation in the country, your call for the resignation of the chairperson of the Malawi Electoral Commission over the disputed electoral process and your subsequent call for mass demonstrations, as a former Head of State of this country, I am equally concerned about the current situation,” reads the letter in part seen by Nyasa Times.

The letter says the former president feels obliged and duty bound to find a civil solution to curtail the prevailing situation by initiating dialogue and conversation.

The letter, however, has not said the venue for the meeting.

HRDC has since called off the scheduled peaceful demonstrations on Tuesday.

The grouping’s vice chairperson Gift Trapence has confirmed the cancellation of the protests as the civil society activists would be heading for the meeting with Muluzi, who governed Malawi from 1994 to 2004 under UDF administration then handpicked Bingu wa Mutharika as his successor.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has also been calling for dialogue with the opposition to end the current political impasse following the disputed May 21 elections.

However, the two major opposition parties; the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM have rejected the dialogue offer before the ruling on the poll case.