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President Bingu wa Mutharika will not attend Sunday’s UDF National Executive Committee (Nec) meeting which is expected to fire him from the ruling party.
A source within the UDF top rank indicated last Sunday that Mutharika will be told officially about his dismissal at a Nec meeting which will take place at party chair Bakili Muluzi’s BCA residence.
Party secretary general Kennedy Makwangwala said on Wednesday Mutharika has not responded to the invitation which was sent to him last Saturday.
“We called State House yesterday (Wednesday) and the people there said the President is not coming,” said Makwangwala.
He said the meeting is, however, going ahead but refused to explain on the intention to fire Mutharika.
“You will hear the results of the meeting on Sunday. Just wait,” said Makwangwala.
Makwangwala’s secretary, who did not provide her name, said when she called State House she talked to a Mr. Mkawa who gave her indications that the President will not be available for the BCA Hill meeting.
Government spokesman Ken Lipenga said he was not sure whether the President has decided to go to the Nec or not.
He said Mutharika is not a member of Nec and that if he goes he will only go because he is the President.
“He might or he might not go. Let’s wait and see,” said Lipenga.
Asked why the president is being invited to the Nec when he is not a member, Makwangwala said Article 11(b) of the UDF Constitution “stipulates that the party’s presidential candidate and his or her running mate for the national presidential elections shall become members of the Nec, if not already elected as members of the Nec”.
“He was our presidential candidate and therefore a member of Nec,” said Makwangwala.
And on the presidential safety which is now being questioned after some members of the UDF were found with firearms at a recent party meeting at Sanjika Palace, Makwangwala said the UDF has never had intentions to assassinate Mutharika.
“That issue was blown out of context. The President knows the truth. He knows that no-one from the UDF wants him dead,” said Makwangwala.
He said the UDF did not want to follow the President to his state residence because the meeting is a party issue and that they did not want to use state machinery for party business.
Makwangwala had said on Sunday vice president Cassim Chilumpha already responded to the invitation with an apology as he will be out of the country.
Mutharika will become the second UDF member to be expelled from the party this year.
Two weeks ago, the party expelled its director of social services Davis Katsonga and suspended seven other senior members of the party, including national organising secretary Salim Bagus and deputy Secretary General Paul Maulidi, after they failed to appear before a disciplinary committee.
A statement from the party said the people were suspended following accusations that they were holding secret party meetings, forming task forces and establishing parallel structures without prior knowledge or permission of their own superiors.
On January 6, Mutharika hit straight at Muluzi blaming him for all the problems in the party and accusing him of hosting a secret meeting with his henchmen at his BCA residence where they plotted to disturb the abortive Sanjika meeting “and shoot at me”.
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