President warns EU observers
2004-04-26 12:13
Blantyre - Malawi's outgoing President Bakili Muluzi has threatened to expel observers from the European Union if they campaigned against his government ahead of the May 18 elections, state radio said on Monday.
"I want the foreign observers to hear this ... their duty should be to observe and not conduct elections. If they come here to decampaign my government, I will ask them to leave the country," Muluzi was quoted as saying at a weekend rally in the northern town of Mzuzu.
An angry Muluzi said: "I have names already and if you are doing something else apart from observing elections, I will ask you to leave the country and I am not playing."
Although he did not mention the observers by name, Muluzi was apparently referring to the EU team, the only international observers currently deployed throughout the 28-district nation.
"Malawi is a sovereign state and I am the head of state and government. Just because you come from somewhere ... you cannot come here to dictate Bakili Muluzi," the president, who retires in May after serving two terms, said.
The EU, which is partly funding the $14m elections, was invited by Malawi's electoral commission to observe the southern African nation's third multi-party elections since 1994.
Observers from the Commonwealth are due to arrive later.
A spokesperson for the EU team, Javier Gutierrez, speaking before Muluzi's threat, said their main task was to "make a comprehensive and national analysis of the electoral process and offer an impartial, balanced and informed assessment of the election".
Gutierrez said the observers will seek to reduce tension and minimise cases of fraud, intimidation and violence.
The May 18 presidential and parliamentary elections will be the third time that Malawians vote under a multi-party system since the end of the dictatorship of Hastings Kamuzu Banda in 1994.
Banda came to power in 1966 and made himself president for life in 1971, jailing political opponents and living in luxury until he was defeated by Muluzi in elections he was forced to hold in 1994.
The presidential race will be contested by five candidates, with the frontrunner seen as economist Bingu wa Mutharika from the governing United Democratic Front.