Malawi president urges citizens to register for 2009 poll

BLANTYRE (AFP) — Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika, who will seek re-election in May next year, on Monday called on citizens to register en masse for the country's fourth multi-party election since 1994, state radio said.

"Go and register to give yourself power to vote for a government of your choice," the radio quoted him as telling supporters who had gathered outside a primary school in the administrative capital Lilongwe, where he had gone to register himself.

Malawi last week launched a massive nationwide drive to get up to seven million citizens onto a fresh voters' register. The exercise will end on November 29 in the country's 28 districts.

"I would like all political, civic and Church leaders to encourage their flock to go and register for people to choose a government of their choice," Mutharika said.

In the May 19 poll Mutharika, in power since 2004, faces a strong challenge from his predecessor and mentor Bakili Muluzi, chosen as the opposition candidate despite being constitutionally barred from contesting.

Muluzi had served two terms from 1994 when he wrested power from dictator Kamuzu Banda in the country's first democratic poll.