Malawi's ruling party endorses incumbent Mutharika for President

The National governing council of Malawi's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has endorsed President Bingu wa Mutharika as the party's presidential candidate during next May's general elections, a top presidential aide announced here Tuesday.

"The (DPP) National Governing Council made this resolution after examining all the political realities on the ground which included the fact that no other DPP member has expressed an interest to contest for the position and the fact that it will be unrealistic to expect that anyone would do so in good faith before nomination day," said DPP Secretary General Heatherwick Ntaba, in a statement monitored on national radio and television.

Ntaba, who is also Mutharika's Chief Political Advisor, said the unanimous endorsement was "in recognition of the president's excellent work during the four years he has been president".

He said the DPP believed Mutharika should be given another chance to finish the development projects he started.

Ntaba said the DPP "is confident not only DPP members will be happy to accept that His Excellency Ngwazi Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika as the presidential candidate bu tthat also all Malawians who wish this country well will gladly and wholeheartedly accept the candidacy and will vote for him in May 2009".

The 75-year-old economist-turned-politician was anointed by former president Bakili Muluzi to become a presidential candidate for the then ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) in the 2004 elections after the latter failed to change the Constitution to allow him stand for a third five-year term.

Mutharika, then seen as a Muluzi protégé, narrowly won the hotly contested poll and immediately embarked on a "zero tolerance" on corruption policy that quickly endeared him to his hitherto detractors.

Nine months after assuming office Mutharika announced he was resigning from the UDF to found his own DPP, accusing his former political buddies in the UDF of frowning upon his tough anti-corruption stand.

Several senior former government officials, including Muluzi himself, have since been arrested and are currently answering a myriad of fraud and corruption cases.

Mutharika is likely to face stiff challenge from veteran politician John Tembo, who heads the country's oldest party - the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) - which us hered Malawi to independence from British colonialists in 1964 under the leadership of the country's founding president, the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Banda, who ruled Malawi with an iron fist for three uninterrupted decades, died aged around 100 in 1997, three years after losing the presidency to Muluzi, his former protégé.

Muluzi has since been endorsed by the UDF to be the party's presidential candidate during the 2009 polls although his candidature faces legal uncertainty since Malawi laws say no one can stand for election as president again after serving two consecutive five-year-terms.

His battalion of 24 lawyers argue that the word "consecutive" means if one serves as president for two consecutive terms then have a breather of say, five years, one is eligible stand again.

His detractors dispute this interpretation and a little-known UDF member has since sued Muluzi, challenging his candidature.

Muluzi has vowed to remove Mutharika from the presidency as punishment for dumping the UDF, the party that put him in power.