Malawis nye præsident, Peter Mutharika, tilbyder sin slagne modstander – landets første kvindelige præsident – en olivengren til forsoning i hvad han håber bliver nye tider i det sydlige Afrikas fattigste land, hvor donorer stiller med opimod halvdelen af budgettet.
Mrs Banda failed in a bid to annul Mr Mutharika’s victory in last month’s election. She called for a re-election, saying the election had been marred by widespread fraud (svindel), reports BBC online Monday.
However, Mrs Banda accepted defeat after the High Court ordered the release of the results on Friday. She is the first serving Malawian president to lose an election.
Mr Mutharika is Malawi’s former foreign minister and younger brother of Bingu wa Mutharika, the late president who unexpectedly died in office in 2012.
Official results showed Mrs Banda came third with 20 per cent of the vote. Mr Mutharika won with 36 per cent, while former preacher Lazarus Chakwera was in second place with 28 per cent.
Peter Mutharika, born in 1940, was elected MP in 2009. He served as justice, education and foreign minister in his brothers cabinet.
Mr Mutharika promised to prosecute all those involved in “Cashgate”, a reference to a huge corruption scandal which hit Malawi during Mrs Banda’s presidency.
The scandal saw millions of dollars worth of public money allegedly stolen by politicians, civil servants and businessmen. It led to donors cutting aid.
Malawi is heavily dependent on aid, which provides 40 per cent of the government’s budget, BBC notes.
Mere om den nye præsident på http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mutharika
Stået klar længe
Mutharika has been waiting for this moment for quite some time, groomed by his brother and former president, the late Bingu wa Mutharika, for the top job, according to South African media reports Sunday.
His ambitions have already been foiled once, when Bingu died suddenly in office. And his victory now is by no means an overwhelming endorsement. It is not even a majority. But it is enough, thanks to Malawi’s winner-take-all electoral system, to give him at least five years to prove himself.
James Woods, consultant on African security and development issues, and family friend of the Mutharikas, said:
“He is a person who is really caring. He is very open to listening to opinions and ideas, so if you have something beneficial, he would be very open to listening. It is not about his say, it is about what is the best thing that can be developed and implemented”.
“He is very intellectual, very sharp…you can sit down and discuss anything with him.. even as a young person.”
Frygtede en “Putin”
By 2011, President Bingu had made it clear that he expected Peter Mutharika to succeed him as the DPP presidential candidate in 2014, much to the chagrin of other senior party figures, including a most disgruntled Joyce Banda, who took this as her cue to leave the party.
The move was also widely criticized both by opposition politicians and civil society groups, who accused Bingu of nepotism; and more damningly, of “doing a Putin”, i.e. evading term limit restrictions by appointing a trusted placeholder.
Bingu’s death, midway through his second and final term, put paid to these grand plans, and also to the ominous turn towards autocracy which Bingu was pushing in his final years.
Bingu was succeeded by Joyce Banda, who wasted no time in undoing some of Bingu’s more damaging measures: she opened up political space again (resulting in this past election being Malawi’s most fiercely contested), and lifted restrictions on civil society. She also enticed donors back into the country and eased restrictions on foreign exchange.
Ventes at støtte tilskud til småbønderne
Meanwhile, Peter Mutharika traded on the Mutharika name, which, contrary to international perceptions, Bingu had not thoroughly trashed. In fact, many Malawians remember Bingu’s first term with great fondness.
He was a steady hand on the tiller, and grew the economy rapidly. Under his watch, Malawi enjoyed food security for the first time in decades. It was only in his second term that his decisions became more erratic, and the country suffered as a result.
Billy Mayaya, a prominent Malawian human rights activist, said:
“There is a likelihood that Peter Mutharika will continue his brother’s policies particularly as they relate to infrastructure development, agricultural subsidies for rural farmers. As a lawyer, I expect him to be more measured in his approach and that Malawi’s democracy will benefit from his legal insight. So civil society may thrive as a result”.
