Mutharika on course to lose 2019 polls – report

Advertisement
Saulos Chilima, Peter Mutharika

An influential intelligence publication on Africa has said President Peter Mutharika will likely lose 2019 elections since his popularity is declining.

A report by London-based Africa Confidential says Mutharika and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are losing their hold on the Southern Region due to high-level corruption and nepotism.

Saulos Chilima, Peter Mutharika
London-based Africa Confidential says Mutharika will likely lose.

“Blantyre was the DPP’s stronghold in the Southern Region, and where Mutharika polled best of all in the 2014 election. No longer. His reputation for corruption, nepotism and as a Lhomwe supremacist has taken hold,” says the report.

The publication has claimed that Mutharika is an uncle to Dalitso Kabambe whom he appointed as Reserve Bank governor, something Kabambe has since refuted.

On corruption, the report says the ruling party has not fired George Chaponda as DPP vice president even though he is answering a corruption case following irregularities in the purchasing of maize from Zambia last year.

The report also notes that DPP General Secretary Greselder Jeffrey was arrested on corruption charges a decade ago and she is now demanding K12 billion for wrongful arrest.

Minister of Information Nicholas Dausi has since described the report as unfair saying the claims it is making are “lies of detractors”.

Dausi said Mutharika makes appointments based on merit and the corruption case against Chaponda does not mean he should be fired from the party since he has not been found guilty by a court of law.