Banda heads Malawi opposition
2004-06-04 13:16
Blantyre - Malawi's main opposition group on Friday announced it has named a new leader to replace Gwanda Chakuamba who pulled his party out of the coalition to join the government.
Aleke Banda, a former minister and leader of the People's Progressive Movement, will now head the Mgwirizano (Unity) Coalition, a statement said.
"We have resolved to relieve Chakuamba of his position as president following a meeting on Thursday night attended by all five party presidents," the statement said.
Chakuamba led the coalition that filed a lawsuit last week challenging the outcome of the May 20 elections which official results showed were won by governing party candidate Bingu wa Mutharika.
But Chakuamba made an about-turn on Thursday and announced that his Republican Party would no longer support the legal challenge and that he planned to join Mutharika's government.
The now splintered opposition coalition said that it planned to pursue the lawsuit "until justice takes its course as it is in the interest of the public."
A second political party in the opposition coalition, Sam Kandodo Banda's Movement for Genuine Democratic Change, also agreed to join the government.
Former president Bakili Muluzi, who is chairman of the governing United Democratic Front, Chakuamba and Kandodo Banda signed a cooperation agreement late Thursday at Muluzi's private residence in Blantyre.
"The accord was signed on condition that Chakuamba withdraw the case challenging the validity of the elections," state radio reported.
Mutharika is expected to announce his cabinet soon.
The elections on May 20 ended the two-term presidency of Muluzi, who came to power in Malawi's first multi-party polls in 1994, ending three decades of dictatorial rule by self-proclaimed president-for-life Kamuzu Banda.
Wedged between Mozambique and Zambia, Malawi is one of the world's poorest nations with most people living on far less than a dollar a day.
The former British colony is also one of the hardest-hit by the Aids crisis, which has brought life expectancy down to 36.