MCP, PP split in Blantyre rallies: Opposition demands police protection

Opposition Malawi Congress Party  (MCP)and Peoples Party  (PP) are asking police protection as they storm Blantyre on Sunday a week after their joint rally in Mzuzu marred by political violence.

MCP publicist Jessie Kabwila has since asked for police protection to avert ugly scenes that characterised the Mzuzu rally where organised panga knife wielding thugs hacked four people.

“We are expecting the police to protect us in Blantyre. We expect the police to be at the opposition rallies too for protection, they should not be protecting the ruling party only,” said Kabwila.

She said this was the time for the law enforcers to brighten their image after it was grossly darkened following the Mzuzu incident.

“We lost trust in the police because of the violence, the way they behaved after the violence. It vindicated our fears that the DPP was behind the violence,” Kabwila said

. She said the police secretly released the four suspects they  had netted in connection with the violence and it was on Easter Sunday, unusual day for the police to release suspects.

“After their release, some politicians threw a party for them and boasted that they were in control of the police. This shows this was a politically motivated violence, this shows the DPP was behind the violence,” she said.

The police said they released the suspects because the Constitutional requirement of the 48 hour period for them to appear before court had elapsed due to the Easter holiday.

In Blantyre however, the MCP and PP will hold different rallies having jointly held rallies together in Lilongwe and Mzuzu raising questions if the MCP is worried with the violence which is as a result of power struggle in the PP.

Two seperate announcements indicated MCP president Lazarus Chakwera will team up with PPM and Mafunde at Nyambadwe grounds whilst PP acting president Uladi Mussa and vice presidents Ralph Jooma and Kamlepo Kalua will be elsewhere in Blantyre at Makheta.