Political analyst warns on age limit

One of the political analysts in the country has warned lawmakers to tread carefully on presidential age limit saying there is no need for maximum age limit.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Dedza East Juliana Lunguzi said recently that she wants to move a motion in Parliament to stop old people from becoming president, Members of Parliament or ministers.

Reacting to Lunguzi’s suggestion, political analyst Wonderful Mkhutche said there is need to be careful on the age limit for presidents since leaving it open would be ideal.

“Providing an age limit will be acting overzealously as far as this debate is concerned. A young president does not mean progress. That is where we are missing the point,” he said.

The analyst noted that debate on age limit has started because people have lost confidence in President Peter Mutharika, who is aged 77, and are using his age as an excuse.

“It is an open secret that there is loss of confidence in President Mutharika’s leadership and most would like to use his age as a way of making sure he does not continue being the President.

“Otherwise, if President Mutharika was enjoying people’s confidence his age could not have been an issue at all,” Mkhutche said.

The analyst added that though Mutharika is at an old age to be working in public office, Malawi already has two five year consecutive presidential limits in the constitution which are enough.

He however advised Malawian lawmakers to consider reducing the minimum age for someone to be president.

Currently, the minimum age is 35. But Mkhutche said youths who are in mid-20s are able to assume great responsibilities in the corporate and public spheres of life.

“We need to therefore bring it down to 30. On the maximum age for one to be the president, the debate has raised a good awareness,” he said. “But let it start and end there.”