Malawi Vice President Salous Chilima says he will defeat the incumbent, President Peter Mutharika, in 2019 presidential, to become the country’s president.
Speaking at Nyambadwe Primary School grounds in Ndirande over the weekend when he presided over the second United Transformation Movement (UTM) rally in Blantyre, Chilima assured his supporters that he is not shaken by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its tactics aimed at frustrating his candidacy.
UTM was initially barred from holding the rally by the Blantyre City Council only to be rescued by an injunction the party obtained against the city council.
The Registrar of Political Parties has also denied UTM from being registered as a political party on the basis that it only used abbreviations.
No Chilima in 2019: Malawi’s Political Parties Registrar rejects UTM
Chilima, who Peter Mutharika picked as a running mate for the 2014 elections, has rejuvenated young people’s interests in politics after Atupele Muluzi’s Agenda for Change failed to live up to its billing.
Chilima dumped DPP, citing widespread corruption in the DPP led government. Ironically, he is yet to quit as the country’s vice president and is therefore part of the same corrupt government, an argument that has been used by opposition Malawi Congress Party to dig at the UTM’s head honcho.
