Muluzi eyes comeback in Malawi

2008-04-23 15:48

Blantyre - Malawi's former president Bakili Muluzi is to seek his party's endorsement as its candidate in next year's national elections at a convention here, says a senior party official.

"So far we have two candidates who will compete at the convention ... Muluzi and the country's vice-president Cassim Chilumpha," Humphrey Mvula, a spokesperson of the former ruling United Democratic Front, said.

Mvula said up to 2 000 delegates drawn from all 28 districts of the impoverished southern African nation would be entitled to vote for Chilumpha or Muluzi, who held the influential position of party chairperson.

"This will be a big leadership and popularity test," Mvula, dubbed the "chief strategist" for Muluzi, said.

Chilumpha, who became vice-president after competing as a running mate to President Bingu wa Mutharika in the 2004 presidential polls, had been under house arrest since May 2006 for allegedly plotting to kill the president by hiring South African hitmen.

He and businessman Yusuf Matumula had been charged with treason and conspiracy to commit murder and their trial was due to begin next month.

Muluzi was head of state from 1994 to 2004 and reluctantly handed over power to his chosen successor Mutharika.

The former president, who wrested power from dictator Kamuzu Banda in the country's first democratic elections, failed in a bid to amend the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term before the 2004 polls.

- AFP