Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Analyst Trashes BJ on Firing Veep  
BRIGHT MALENGA
Malawi 24
AUG 19, 2018

A political analyst has trashed Brown Mpinganjira’s proposal that the Malawi constitution should be amended to allow the president to fire his vice president.

In an exclusive interview with Malawi24, the analyst Wonderful Mkhutche said Mpinganjira’s idea cannot apply in democratic Malawi and he accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politician of trying to please his party leader President Peter Mutharika.

“As a country, we need to be moving forward with our democracy. Having one man leading the country means that we are concentrating too much power on him and that is not in line with democratic values. If this suggestion can be taken, it means we will have taken ourselves two decades back,” said Mkhutche.

The analyst added that the enmity between Malawi’s four democratic era presidents and their vice presidents is an opportunity to find out how to make the relationship between the two leaders work.

According to Mkhutche, Mpinganjira is going for the easy path when there is a hard one of making sure the President and his Vice have a cordial relationship.

Mkhutche laughs off BJ’s suggestion.

“There are more advantages of having a Vice President compared to the single disadvantage being cited.

“Among others, the Vice Presidency makes it possible that power is not concentrated in one man. The office is also a good succession plan in case the President dies or is incapacitated. The fact that the relationship between the President and his Vice has not been cordial in democratic Malawi does not mean that we need to remove the Vice President’s office,” he said.

Mkhutche also expressed doubt if Mpinganjira believes in the suggestion he made saying the politician possibly made the proposal because he is a member of the DPP.

“If the same Mpinganjira can happen to be in another camp where the Vice Presidency will matter, he will take a different stand,” Mkhutche told Malawi24.

President Peter Mutharika and his Vice President Saulos Chilima are not in good terms after Chilima dumped the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and formed his United Transformation Movement.

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